An engineer, who 'printed' an AR-15 using a 1000-dollar 3D-printer, has revealed just how easy it is to create a firearm at home at a time when gun control is back on the minds of millions of Americans following last month's shootings in Colorado.
According to the Daily news, Michael Guslick was able to adapt a design from the Internet to create an essential component of a semiautomatic rifle.
Guslick said last week in an online forum that he 'printed' and fired the world's first home-made, 3D-impressed gun more than 200 times.
A 3D printer uses layers of plastic or other malleable materials to create items that range from jewellery to industrial parts - but, according to Guslick, no one has ever before used the home version to build a gun.
Under his online alias, 'HaveBlue,' Guslick posted on the firearms forum AR15.com that he had 3D-printed the lower receiver of an AR-15, a semiautomatic rifle.
"To the best of my knowledge, this is the world's first 3D printed firearm to actually be tested," the New York Daily News quoted him as writing last week.
Guslick said creating the rifle on his own "wasn't that difficult."
For 1,000 dollars, the engineer said he picked up a 3D printer that looks something like a mini-fridge.
According to Guslick, the printers work like "computer controlled plastic dispensers."
After slightly modifying gun blueprints that he said "have been floating around the Internet for quite some time," the man began to print.
Thirty hours later, his home-crafted gun base was ready.
Guslick added some 'furniture' - insider talk for the grip and stock - to the firearm and fired off about 200 rounds.
"It was extremely large and ungainly, but it worked," he said.
He also said that the "barrier to entry is certainly being lowered," since anyone with some technological knowledge could probably do what Guslick did.
The gun enthusiast believes the media blew his story out of proportion.
"I guess this is a testament to how fearful people are of hearing that someone can 3D-print a gun without understanding that this wasn't all that complex, it's only in a legal sense that I have printed a firearm," he added.