If you 3D printed the frame of a Glock-style pistol, you can buy the rest from the internet and assemble it, and you have a gun, it’s a ghost gun. An anonymous, completely private lethal weapon.
Zoë Schiffer: When we come back we will learn the details of how Andy actually made and assembled the ghost gun. But for now, we have to go for a break.
[break]
Zoë Schiffer: Welcome back Incredible valley. OK Andy, I want to get into the gun assembly process. Talk to me about the key points from printing to ordering parts to actually putting them together.
Andy Greenberg: Printing is definitely the easiest part of 2025. You can really download these files, these CAD files are used from a series of gun frames that are basically controlled by guns. Then put them in some software and click “Print” and after 13 hours I have two perfect Glock style frameworks in this case. The 3D printer I’m using and the cheap features are very powerful.
The conference is going to be tricky. As difficult as ever. It’s like assembling a small piece of IKEA furniture. There are a lot of small pins with hammering and the trigger mechanism is assembled, all of which must fit into the small cavity inside the frame. It took me over an hour to do this, and I was guided by 3D printed gun lovers in the process. He calls himself printing, shooting, repetition, and it’s really helpful and patient. But I think it takes 15 or 20 minutes for people who know what they are doing –
Zoë Schiffer: Wow.
Andy Greenberg: – Once you have done some exercises, assemble it.
Zoë Schiffer: OK Then you shoot. what happened? How did it feel in the range of the gun at that moment?
Andy Greenberg: Well, even before I shoot, when you build a gun, there is an incredible moment. It feels like an interesting technical process, like making a model plane or something. Then suddenly, I put this slide on the frame and clicked into place. Then, for the first time you see you have a gun in your hand, which is a deadly weapon. The way you have to treat the gun with the gun in your hand is so different from the collection of gun parts. Suddenly, this is this deadly weapon and you have to be careful to point it. It was a very dramatic moment. Anyway, this is for me.
Zoë Schiffer: There was a last part of the conference where you put a silencer, just like the Luigi Mangione allegedly on the gun, right?
Andy Greenberg: Correct. Luigi Mangione allegedly has 3D printed mufflers in their backpacks, which is a very new phenomenon, even in 3D printed Gun World. We have also established it. We 3D printed the silencer. Actually, this is the different part. For me, this is my felony, it is a well-known suppressor, a muffler. We do have an actual license to Gunsmith, which is the owner of the range we are going to test, they pushed the printing in this case and helped us build the silencer. Luigi Mangione allegedly did this, and he would have violated the law. I’ve been there too, if not to get the gunman to help us in hand.
