A well-known member of the 3D printed firearm community has been sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison for building and possessing machine gun conversion devices. Peter Celentano, who went by the name “DrFreeman1337,” was previously the subject of a civil lawsuit filed by Everytown for Gun Safety over a 3D-printed .22LR magazine created by Celentano that he dubbed “The Everytown Mag.”
Everytown was not amused, and after another member of the GunCAD community modified Celentano’s design to include Everytown’s logo, the gun control group sued for copyright infringement. The lawsuit was ultimately settled and the files removed from sharing sites like The Gatalog and DEFCAD, but it wasn’t long after that Celentano’s home in Genesee County, New York was raided after an anonymous 911 call led to a state and federal investigation.
During a search of his home in September 2024, law enforcement found 3D printed pistol frames, firearm parts and accessories, ammunition reloading equipment, tools for constructing privately made firearms, a drill press, and two 3D-printed machine gun conversion devices.
Authorities also suspected Celentano had moved or disposed of evidence. The State Police, Genesee County Sheriff’s Office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives searched other properties in Orleans and Genesee counties, seizing AR-style lower receivers, 3D printed handguns, and additional firearm parts and accessories in a shed, an apartment and an RV in Lyndonville and Medina.
Other evidence of his ghost gun business ended up in the Erie Canal.
During the investigation, law enforcement also interviewed a friend of Celentano’s who said Celentano had provided him with nine lower receivers and that two of those receivers contained the “third pin hole,” making them machine guns, according to Celentano’s plea agreement. The friend’s father disposed of those firearms by throwing them off the Beals Road bridge into the Erie Canal.
A police dive team located and recovered a cardboard box containing AR-style receivers, unmarked handgun, ammunition magazines and other firearm parts.
The legal fights over 3D-printed firearms are an ongoing issue, and as much as I support the right to build your own gun using the technology that’s available to us, the state of New York vehemently disagrees. The federal government doesn’t forbid the practice, so long as those guns aren’t sold to others, but making your own machine gun is a no-no under federal law.
In a letter written by Celentano to the federal judge in charge of sentencing him, the 37-year-old described himself as someone who “used to be an enthusiastic Second Amendment enthusiast,” albeit one who “many poor decisions over the years” and “went much too far with my hobby.” Celentano added that he grieved over the “damage and suffering caused to all involved,” especially to his wife and son.
U.S. District Judge Lawrence Vilardo handed down a 41-month sentence, which is actually less time than what Celentano could have received. The judge said that his lack of a previous criminal history, his expressed remorse, and his family’s strong support system factored into his decision.
Compare that 3 1/2 year sentence to the ten years that Dexter Taylor, a software engineer from Brooklyn, received in state court for building his own semi-automatic firearms and possessing them without a permit. Though Taylor also had no previous criminal history and was not accused of giving away or selling any of the guns that he made, his sentence is almost three times longer than what Celentano received in federal court, and Taylor is currently incarcerated in a maximum security prison for the victimless “crime” (and violent felony offense, according to the state of New York) of building and possessing guns without getting approval from government authorities.
I believe the Second Amendment protects the right to own fully automatic firearms the same as semi-automatic, lever-action, bolt-action, and muzzleloading guns. Federal law says otherwise, and for the moment that law is still valid, even with the Fifth Circuit’s recent decision in the Jensen and Silencer Shop cases. Celentano took a big risk when he started building his own guns while living in New York, and though a federal judge cut him a break, at last report he’s also facing a dozen charges in Genesee County, so the relatively light sentence he received this week might not be the only punishment he faces.
Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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