It was a terrifying thought – a gang in Manchester, UK had been caught creating what were thought to be gun parts with a 3D printer. That translated into irresponsible headlines like The Telegraph’s “3D gun discovered by police,” when that wasn’t what the police had said at all.
Then many people including GigaOM pointed out that the ‘gun parts’ looked a lot like 3D printer parts. Greater Manchester Police have issued a clarification noting that they “cannot categorically say we have recovered the component parts for a 3D gun,” but that they “have intelligence about the possible production of a weapon using this technology.”
The first known successful firing of a 3D-printed gun took place earlier this year so it’s good to know that police are looking into any potential criminal activity around 3D printing of firearms but let’s not get worked up about things that haven’t actually happened.
Image credit: Greater Manchester Police
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