Posted on 10/03/2022 9:36:40 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
A TECH-SAVVY New Yorker has made a whopping $21,000 by selling 3D-printed guns.
The man, who identified himself as 'Kem', sold 110 guns to the attorney general's office in a buy-back scheme, Futurism reported.
Earlier this year, the state of New York started a 'Cash for Guns' program that offers at least $200 to anyone who surrenders a gun.
Kem then saw people tweeting about the program while joking that they could 3D-print guns to earn some instant cash.
The tweets inspired Kem to try the scheme out in real life, using a $200 3D printer he'd gotten for Christmas.
"I 3D-printed a bunch of lower receivers and frames for different kinds of firearms," the man said.
He added that he drove six hours to Utica to a gun buyback event being held by the city's police department.
At the event, Kem sold 'back' 110 small firearms, which resulted in 42 gift cards.
Each gift card was worth $500, equalling a total of $21,000.
It's unclear if Kem faced any legal repercussions for the scam but the AG's office put out a statement in response.
"It’s shameful that this individual exploited a program that has successfully taken thousands of guns off the streets to protect our communities from gun violence," the statement read.
The AG office also called the man's scam "greedy" and said that the state has adjusted its gun buyback policies.
"[We wanted] to ensure that no one can exploit this program again for personal gain."
Experts have expressed concern about people using 3D printers to make firearms for some time.
Earlier this year, Chicago police echoed that if 3D guns get into the wrong hands, they could be potentially deadly weapons for criminals or terrorists, per CBS News.
Did he actually make money?
Did Utica see a reduction in it’s ‘Rat, Urban Utopia death rate?
“Did he make money”
True. The article talks about the revenue but the only expenses mentioned are the $200 3D printer and a 12 hour driving round trip. It takes lots of consumables to print things.
I presume his printed guns were not operable. Why would they buy them back?
Printing guns is not a “scam” - he simply followed the rules of the program.
The real scam is government using tax $$$ to purchase handguns and claiming that this will reduce crime and gun violence
No scam
Exactly correct.
He didn’t violate any laws or rules.
I would also guess if they didn’t want to take them, they could have refused them, especially if they “felt” he was violating the spirit of the program...
His $200 3D printer could make real metal guns?
Hahaha - like the British in India, put a bounty on vipers to rid the city of snakes, and people started breeding them
Back in the day, he could have made more money begging/panhandling on the streets of NYC.
https://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/plague-professional-panhandling-0197.html
LOL!
Printing all those had to be slow.
But it does expose just how stupid the “Buy Back” scams are.
Most of the guns turned in are from the elderly and almost any real gun in decent condition is actually worth a lot more than $200.00
So the state is PO’ed that they are not getting to rip-off the elderly and skim the most valuable guns for profit.
I know a lot of guys who collect truly junk guns all year waiting for the next one of these events.
A minimum 50% of all tax money ends up in the pockets of Demonrats administering it. Many gift cards will disappear into the ratmosphere after a little administrative manipulation.
It doesn't have to make the whole gun, just the frame, which is considered a 'firearm', legally. People have been 3D printing those for years. They are the "plastic guns" the grabbers have been having fits over, even though the barrel, springs, and trigger group, and at least parts of the slide are made of metal. Even without all those parts, the frame is still legally a firearm.
So you mean, this fellow produces a lower (I guess it is called, I could be wrong) with no trigger ass’y, no barrel, no slide, no spring, and a normal beat cop doing weekend buyback duty, sitting at a folding banquet table in a parking lot identifies this as a gun and hands over the reward?
>> a gun buyback event being held by the city’s police department... 110 guns
COP: Are you here to return guns?
Man: Yes, sir.
COP: About how many guns.
Man: Approximately 5000 guns, sir.
COP: Wow, not sure we have that many gift cards.
The BATFE identifies (in fact defines) a pistol frame as a “Firearm”, legally. That’s the part that gets the serial number.
In many of these “buybacks” no questions are asked, and the guns don’t have to be fully functional. That means there are bigger numbers for the dept to claim :success”, which is what the people who donate the funds for this stuff want, anyway.
I have seen junk pawn shop pieces over the years, sold “as is”, for far less than $200, and they weren’t worth that, imho. But those would still qualify for the payment.
No, it hasn't.
Yes, he made a lot of money. The filament to make 100 comedy-grade lower receivers (not actually safe to use for more than a few rounds but good enough to fool a government clerk), is about one hundred bucks. The time to take to print that comedy grade receiver costs maybe a dollar per receiver on the upper end for electricity, and maybe five bucks per for checking in and babysitting the start of the print.
On the other hand, with new ATF rules (which are unconstitutional if we held to precedent but unchallenged in court and who knows what the Supreme court will look like when it gets there) his stunt could turn him into an unlicensed firearms dealer and treated like a terrorist by the ATF. Guaranteed, he is on a list now. Not sure what list, but it would be surprising if he doesn have problems getting on an airplane or doing his taxes for a long time, much less actually purchasing a real firearm if he so desires. If the deep state hates anything more than someone showing their incompetence to the world, I have yet to see it.
They call it a “scam” but there was nothing dishonest about it. He gave them what they wanted and they gave him what he wanted. Sounds like a straight up transaction to me.
Of course they are utter fools. The cat is out of the bag as far as 3D printing of guns. You are never going to be able to stop the 3D printing of guns. Efforts to constrain/reduce supply were always doomed to failure and were always a fool’s errand.
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