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By Sophie Clark
Live News Reporter
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President Joe Biden has announced a new executive order to combat gun violence in America, including a ban on unserialized 3D-printed firearms and a task force to assess the threat posed by 3D-printed guns.
A statement from the White House on September 26 announced the wide-ranging order as part of the Biden Harris administration's strategy to address the issue, including the creation of the Emerging Firearms Threats Task Force.
The order will tackle the two main emerging threats posed by 3D printers: machine gun conversion devices that can be printed with a 3D printer code online, and full firearms that can be printed via an illegally obtained code on the internet.
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Machine gun converters, which can also be imported into the country, have the capacity to turn a semiautomatic rifle, and handguns that can be easily concealed, into guns that can match the rate of a machine gun, firing up to 20 bullets a second.
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Despite these guns being illegal to purchase, the ATF recovered 5,454 between 2017 and 2021. According to the White House, this is because these devices are small and cheap, costing as little as 40 cents, and taking 30 minutes to print off a 3D printer.
The executive order also aims to tackle the printing of 3D firearms, which can be produced without serial numbers, making it impossible for law enforcement to track them. Additionally, these guns can be made to be undetectable by magnetometers in places such as airports, courthouses, event spaces, and other public places.
Similarly to machine gun converters, these guns are also illegal to obtain, make, or sell. However, the Biden administration fears that the improvement of 3D printer technology will result in an increase in 3D guns.
Lindsay Nichols, policy director of the Giffords Law Center, told Newsweek that such guns do pose a serious risk to gun control, and gun safety.
"Law enforcement are increasingly faced with these dangerous devices, which enable guns to operate with overwhelmingly lethality, but are very small, making them far too easy to manufacture and transport," Nichols said.
"They are already illegal and there is widespread support for doing more to stop these guns from harming our communities. So working toward ensuring that law enforcement has all the tools it needs to address both of these threats is a growing part of our work.
"We need lawmakers across the country to take action to address these devices ASAP and why this Executive Order is so important."
However, Randy Kozuch, executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, told Newsweek: "This Executive Order is just one more attempt by the Biden-Harris Administration to deflect attention from their soft-on-crime policies that have emboldened criminals in our country. The orders are notably heavy on election-year rhetoric and light on substance. It's no secret that Americans don't feel safe under the Biden-Harris Administration, as evidenced by the record number of firearms being purchased for the defense of self and family."
David Riedman, founder of the K-12 School Shooting Database, agreed with Nichols. "Everything in this executive order is a step in the right direction," he told Newsweek.
"While I don't have exact numbers [on how many school shootings are cased by 3D guns] because police usually don't share the specific details about a weapon being legally owned, stolen, or home-manufactured, I have seen multiple shootings at schools and students caught with Glock handguns with the 3D printed switch for fully automatic fire."
The administration is "taking additional action" on these threats by establishing the Emerging Firearms Threats Task Force.
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The task force is tasked with issuing a report in 90 days that includes an assessment of the threat posed by both machine gun converters and unserialized 3D-printed guns.
The task force will also report on the operational capacity of federal agencies to detect these guns and devices, and whether they are capable of intercepting and seizing them. It will also be in charge of creating a plan for combating these new threats to the firearms landscape, and listing what funding and assistance from other agencies they will.
According to the White House, the Biden-Harris administration has issued more executive orders on gun violence than other administrations.
The White House has also said that it has delivered over $15 billion for public safety strategies such as community violence interventions and law enforcement funding.
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