Australian police seize 3D-printed gun parts and knuckle dusters in raid (courtesy CNET.com)

“Police in Australia have seized a haul of 3D-printed weapons and gun parts,” cnet.com reports, “in what law enforcement officials say is the first seizure of its kind in the state of Queensland.” Or anywhere else, I imagine. “Police descended on a 28-year-old man’s residence just south of Queensland’s Gold Coast, and said a subsequent search revealed a hoard of drugs, ammunition, a sawn-off .22 rifle and the 3D-printed weapons.” TTAG called 3D firearm printmeister Cody Wilson for a quote. But first, more deets . . .

According to Detective Inspector Scott Knowles of Queensland’s Major and Organised Crime Squad, the weapons included a set of 3D-printed knuckle dusters and “sufficient parts to make four concealable firearms” — each with roughly 8 parts per weapon.”

Detective Inspector Knowles revealed the parts were created on a 3D printer belonging to a commercial business. The printer had been left with the 28 year old in order to be calibrated. The man has since been charged with a number of drugs and weapons offences and is set to appear in court.

“With weapons and parts manufactured this way still being classified as a firearm under current legislation, people can also see themselves before the courts for manufacturing and possessing these items,” Detective Inspector Knowles said.

Cody Wilson, the man who kicked off the 3D printed gun sh*tstorm revolution with his Liberator pistol, says he recognizes the disassembled firearm in the pic above. “The files are a couple of years old,” Cody told TTAG. “It’s the reprringer derringer [below].”

I asked Cody why he thinks his 3D-printed gun showed-up in The Land Down Under. Sensibly enough, the innovator, anarchist and author reckons it’s down to Australia’s harsh gun control regime. “Where goods can’t cross borders, files will. Where there are people who can’t own handguns out there, they’ll experiment with what they can . . . plenty of people all over OZ have printed them throughout Australia and the police have no idea where they are.”

I asked Cody if the new technology was aiding and abetting criminals, or helping disarmed population defend itself. “Is that even a question?” he asked.

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44 COMMENTS

  1. This is an enforcement nightmare for police in Australia. While Australia’s government can certainly trace file transfers across the Internet, they cannot trace file transfers on flash drives carried in hand.

    • Have fun file tracing TOR traffic though. They can’t even get the drug dealers pedophiles . Good luck getting the 3D gun files. The only busts have been because of human error. Linking names or emails in the clear net with dark net ones.

      • When it’ll become bothersome enough, they’ll just ban Tor altogether. While it’s hard to trace where the specific connection goes and what it downloads, detecting that it is a Tor connection is fairly easy.

      • Nonsense. TOR, besides being developed by the US government, is not invincible. Even the TOR website mentions this. And besides the fact that it is easily possible to trace a TOR user, as long as you have the time to devote to it, the FBI came up with a time saving way. A warrant to plant malware on servers to track the root ip address. They arrested 25 pedophiles last year in one case who had hidden behind TOR.

        If you are not involved in any big criminal affairs (either a provider or client) you aren’t worth the effort. But it is being done.

    • While Australia’s government can certainly trace file transfers across the Internet…

      Don’t be so sure.

      TOR is compromised by the NSA/CIA as they have too many bridges and entrance/exit nodes.

      You don’t need TOR. All you need is an Internet cafe with no cameras, a Linux live cd and proxies are your friends (especially anonymous ones that don’t keep logs).

      • How do you know that the Internet cafe that you visit doesn’t have a camera? Just because you don’t see it? Heh. But even if they don’t, you will still be seen, and they can describe you later to someone who’ll come in asking questions.

        (You also forgot to mention that you’d have to pay with cash, otherwise your name is on the credit card …)

        How do you know that the proxy that you’re using is not an NSA honeypot? For that matter, where did you even get the proxy details? Some “free anon proxies list” website on the Net? How do you know that is not a honeypot?

        How do you know that the proxy doesn’t keep logs? Just because they tell you they don’t?

    • They should just jump cut to the real ‘final solution’ and ban people. That’s the only way to stop people from building stuff and seeking their own ‘better way.’

      • Soilent Green, coming soon to the Land Down Under. Might not be so bad, actually…it can’t taste worse than vegemite.

        • If you think nothing is worse than Vegemite try Marmite.

          Seriously though can’t they just use an old fashioned zip gun? Assuming ammunition could be located what good is it no barrel, no firing mechanism & doesn’t Sydney have one of the largest firearms assault stats of all the disarmed nations. My neighbor moved here & became a citizen to have the RIGHT to keep his dad’s firearms collection. Not the 1st reason but in his top 3.

        • ” Assuming ammunition could be located”

          Ammo is surprisingly easy to make…especially for ‘one-off’ shots. Think like it’s a muzzleloader if you have to, but even cartridges are do-able in a field expedient way.

          Firearm technology cannot be dis-invented. It is here to stay, and anyone that wants to launch a projectile by the release of stored chemical energy can easily find a way to do so. “Banning” is a joke.

        • Marmite/Vegemite aren’t that bad really. No worse than a strong yeasty beer, say Guiness. Now as for that hot diarrhea (aka coffee) that everyone drinks… THAT I can’t understand.

        • It will be countered with bible banning. It’s not the quoran it’s the lunacy of how they interpret it same as some preachers here. Before I get flamed I am ordained and have a divinity degree, so your parking space is safe. Muslims, Jews and Christians have been fighting since day one not gonna stop from book ban.
          Australia started as a penal colony, I say turn it back into one. Just save the koala bears and put the Aborigines in charge.

    • “You can’t stop the signal.”

      Oh, really?

      TTAG’s ‘signal’ got stopped for nearly 2 days with a DDoS attack.

      Anyone who says “You can’t stop the signal.” has never experienced an effective jamming campaign.

      • DDoS did not STOP TTAG’s signal, only delayed it slightly.

        And, the TTAG facebook page was still up. TTAG is only one ‘repeater’ in the signal.

        It was the only 2A blog out at the time. And local groups were still doing their thing…word of mouth and all that.

        So, no, you can’t stop the signal. Don’t think one-dimensionally.

        • You can’t stop the signal, but you sure can make it so that 99% of the people don’t have the means to access it, or are afraid to use them.

    • I suspect the operator of the 3-D printer was foolish enough to download files from an Internet website or file server. I can guarantee you that the Australian government is tracking all traffic to those sites and/or servers.

        • That is a good question. PhDs and Big Brother claim that they can find hidden files no matter what method you use to hide them in a parent file — even when the size of the hidden file is only 1% of the size of the parent file. When talking about photos, it would depend on how random and how much noise cameras superimpose over an actual target image. Intuitively speaking, I don’t see how anyone could possibly claim to detect a random 1-bit pattern on a 24-bit bitmap image file.

          I imagine the only way to move files without anyone possibly being able to decode them is to have pre-shared indices or keys that are transferred face-to-face. And if you are going to do that, you might as well just transfer the files face-to-face.

          And don’t forget good old-fashioned methods like simply tracking who is interacting with whom. That alone speaks volumes as to what is going on.

        • The problem with ‘sterile lab success’ stories of cracking stego is that they STILL have to know where to look. There are an awful lot of non-hidden-file-containing .jpg’s on the ‘Net. And others, it does not have to be an image file.

          It makes one wonder how much ‘real’ info is being transmitted via Instagram…for example. With all the ‘noise’ there, searching for random bits would be a needle in a 1000 haystacks.

        • JR_in_NC,

          While your suggestions may very well work, you still have the problem of advertising — how does anyone learn that a file is available on some server embedded in some photo, video, whatever without Big Brother also being able to discover said advertisement? There is no viable method of widespread dissemination without tipping your hand.

          Sure, two people who know and trust each other implicitly could arrange for anonymous / untraceable transfers. But widespread public dissemination that is untraceable is impossible.

  6. The genie is out of the bottle.

    The genie can never be put back.

    The feckless State, wishing desperately to but failing to be omnipresent and omniscient, beaten by bits of data off a flash drive, a printer, and some bits of plastic.

    How delicious. 😉

  9. BTW, the spelling is: Strewth!

    You don’t use Vegemite like Peanut butter. The taste is too strong. A little goes a LONG way.

    As for 3D printed guns, even as an Aussie I’m not surprised. And a pepperbox design is an easy and obvious start for a multi-shot design. The limitations are still with the ammunition and the strength of the materials.

  11. The worst.of the criminal element can easily acquire guns by simply taking them from police officers they ambush, so I would argue that this criminal was doing the police a service.

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