The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) last week released videos of tests of plastic guns made with 3D printers that show some exploding on the first shot. The explosions could injure users, the testing found.
The ATF has been testing guns made with 3D printers using two commonly used thermoplastic materials over the past year to determine how safe the weapons are.
Guns made using one of the two thermoplastics tested, a polymer from VisiJet, never lasted more than one shot before exploding. The other material, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), could produce a gun that fired eight times without incident.
The agents stopped shooting after eight bullets, an ATF spokesperson said.
It depends on the material as well as the quality of the printer. Those variables both go into it,
the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson wouldn’t identify 3D printers used or which computer-assisted drawing (CAD) files were downloaded to create the weapon — via redwolf.newsvine.com
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