Pro-gun advocates call it another swipe at homemade firearms.
Just 24 hours after the Supreme Court upheld the Biden administration’s restrictions on privately made firearms, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg stepped up his crusade—this time targeting 3D printer manufacturers.
Yes, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is the same DA who charged former President Donald Trump. In April 2023, Bragg’s office indicted Trump on 34 felony counts of “falsifying business records related to a hush money payment” during the 2016 presidential campaign.
In a public letter dated March 27, 2025, Bragg called on Shenzhen Creality 3D Technology Co., Ltd.—a top-selling 3D printer brand for DIY users—to install software that detects and blocks the printing of common gun parts. His office is also demanding that Creality remove downloadable CAD files (digital blueprints) from its cloud platform and rewrite its user agreement to ban the creation of so-called “illicit weapons.”
Bragg claims that Creality 3D Printers have already been seized during law enforcement investigations in New York, and the company is now being asked to take “commonsense” steps to help law enforcement reduce what he calls a growing threat of 3D-printed and ghost guns.
“We are calling on companies that sell 3D-printers to work with us to stem the flow of dangerous weapons into our communities by implementing targeted, commonsense fixes,” said Bragg in the release. “Too often, gun violence tragically takes innocent lives and tears at the fabric of our communities… We are hopeful that we can partner with these companies and make a meaningful impact on public safety.”
According to Bragg, the NYPD and his office have seen a sharp rise in what they define as “illegal, 3D-printed firearms and ghost guns.” He highlighted recent cases involving 3D-printed firearms, including:
- Luigi Mangione, who allegedly used a 3D-printed ghost gun and silencer;
- Roberto Guerrero, who allegedly manufactured gun parts in his Harlem apartment;
- Cory Davis, who pleaded guilty to making and possessing loaded 3D-printed firearms;
- Cliffie Thompson, who admitted to running a ghost gun “factory” in his East Village apartment.
Bragg’s office also touted its “Ghost Gun Initiative,” launched in 2020 with the NYPD, as a way to keep ahead of evolving home-manufacturing technologies.
From Blueprints to Bans
But for many in the firearms community, Bragg’s latest effort is yet another example of the government trying to outsource its gun control agenda to private tech companies. The concern isn’t just about what’s being blocked—it’s about who gets to decide what Americans are allowed to build in their own homes.
By targeting 3D printers, cloud services, and digital file sharing, critics say Bragg is attempting to backdoor a national registry and surveillance state, all under the banner of “public safety.” Creality has not responded publicly, and it remains unclear if the overseas company will comply with Bragg’s requests.
In a related effort, Bragg also called on YouTube in April 2024 to restrict firearm-related content and accused the platform of pushing gun-building tutorials to young users. He has introduced legislation in New York that would make it a felony to manufacture 3D-printed or ghost guns and a misdemeanor to share or distribute digital blueprints for gun components.
The Bigger Picture
Bragg’s push comes in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Vanderstok v. Garland, where the high court upheld the ATF’s expanded authority to regulate unfinished frames and gun kits. Writing for the 7–2 majority, Chief Justice Roberts caved and cited the rise of 3D printing and “Hello Fresh-style” gun kits as justification for treating unfinished parts as firearms.
To gun rights advocates, it’s a troubling sign: regulators and prosecutors aren’t just coming for the guns—they’re coming for the files, tools, and knowledge, too.
Whether Creality caves or stands its ground, one thing’s for sure: the fight over gun rights in the 21st century won’t just happen in courtrooms or legislatures—it will happen in code, clouds, and printers.
Weaponizing Technology Regulation
This move follows a growing pattern: when laws fall short of banning firearms outright, bureaucrats apply pressure to tech companies and platforms instead. Whether it’s payment processors blacklisting gun parts, social media throttling Second Amendment content, or now, 3D printers being told to block certain shapes from being printed, it’s clear the battleground has shifted.
Under federal law, Americans are allowed to manufacture firearms for personal use, provided they are not sold or transferred. The problem for anti-gun officials like Bragg is that home manufacturing bypasses the surveillance-heavy framework they’ve spent years trying to build—licensing, background checks, serial numbers, registries, and bans.
What’s Next?
It remains to be seen whether Creality or other manufacturers will comply. Many companies are based overseas and may have little interest in bending to U.S. political pressure. Meanwhile, digital files for gun parts are already widely distributed across decentralized networks, meaning that even if one cloud service folds, others will pop up in its place.
For many in the gun community, Bragg’s latest campaign is less about crime and more about control. They say it’s another attempt to chip away at gun rights by regulating tools, files, and freedom of expression—all while ignoring the fact that criminals don’t follow printer policies or software restrictions.
As this battle over code, hardware, and rights plays out, one thing is clear: the fight for the Second Amendment is now digital.
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Can’t Stop the Files: Media’s War on 3D-Printed Firearms Exposed
What’s next? closing down every tool&die shop in the state?
Can you print a barrel? No? Then F0!
As far as 3D printing gun parts goes, the horses have long since fled the barn and there is nothing left of it but a rickety door frame and a rotten door that won’t latch. A tyrannical state senator hete in Kommiefornia is at least smart enough to realize there is little hope of regulating 3D printing or CNC machining and has introduced a bill(SB 704) that would require firearm barrels to only be transferred through FFL’s with the same background check required to buy a firearm. Never mind that you cannot “manufacture “ your own firearm unless you’re an… Read more »
Haven’t the courts already established that the People have a right to make their own firearms under the 2nd Amendment?
This is a VERY BAD IDEA. There are almost certainly other issues that I haven’t included here that make this a VERY dangerous idea when it comes to our Rights as Americans. Banning “certain shapes” would also ban the printing of literally 100’s of thousands, perhaps millions…of perfectly legal components, such as “gun part” shaped and replacement parts for everyday normal appliances. Even a simple “L” shaped bit of plastic looks like a “gun part”. The most obvious impact would be it would prevent printing MODEL replicas of guns, parts for 100% legal paintball guns and “BB” and pellet guns… Read more »