In the early days after UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s murder, there was a lot of speculation as to what exactly the killer used. With the arrest of Luigi Magione, though, many of them have been answered. We know that Magione was in possession of a 3D-printed handgun and he had a suppressor.
However, what we’re not seeing in most of these reports is just where the suppressor came from.
I’ve reached out to the NYPD for answers, though they haven’t responded by the time this particular piece has gone live. In fairness to them, I sent that email early this morning before most decent people were awake.
What’s interesting, though, are a lot of reports that this was like a 3D-printed suppressor.
‘I can confirm it is a 3D-printed gun,’ Print Shoot Repeat, who runs the YouTube channel PSR, said. ‘What are the odds it was a 3D-printed suppressor? Well, I think kind of high honestly.’
He explained that a 3D printer suppressor is ‘super light,’ but does not allow the slide the cycle properly.
The shooter of Thompson experienced a similar issue during the murder when he shot and had to recycle the slide to take another shot.
However, another gun expert with more than 30 years of training told Dailymail.com that most guns with a suppressor will behave that way.
‘There are different causes for jamming,’ the expert, who spoke on anonymity, said.
‘Sometimes the ammunition is poor sometimes the firearm is dirty, it’s not maintained. The ammunition is a poor grade. It doesn’t matter what kind of gun it is.
So yeah, there’s debate.
What we don’t have are answers.
3D-printing a suppressor fits what we know about the killer. We know he printed the receiver for his gun–my speculation has been that he knew all the media reporting on “gun tracing” but didn’t understand what that meant, so he wanted to avoid being identified quickly or easily–and that suppressors are more tightly controlled than firearms are. It’s very likely he did print his suppressor.
That brings up all kinds of possibilities and probabilities that a lot of gun control activists aren’t going to like.
First, again, suppressors are tightly controlled. There aren’t “suppressor kits” marketed throughout the internet where you guy buy a kit, print some key parts, and you legally have a suppressor. It doesn’t work like that. One could argue that there are kits available, but they’re not marketed as such and I have yet to find one that requires a 3D-printed part to work.
So that brings us to the idea that the whole thing was 3D printed.
No laws on the books allow just anyone to print themselves a suppressor.
“Yeah, but the files are all over the internet, most likely.”
Sure. However, there’s a problem with that argument. See, while possession of those files might not be illegal, having them on the internet likely is.
The gun files you can find on the internet are generally only there because the State Department has decided that they don’t violate the International Traffic in Arms Regulations or ITAR. That basically says that weapons and weapons technology can’t be exported without federal approval. That includes technical data.
On Monday, a State Department spokesperson confirmed to Bearing Arms that the U.S. Munitions List in Category I does, in fact, include suppressors and the technical data required to make them.
In other words, those files shouldn’t lawfully be on the internet in the first place.
While the State Department wouldn’t comment on any potential investigation, this still blows all the “we should ban ‘ghost guns'” rhetoric out of the water.
In no way are suppressors lawfully produced, and yet Magione allegedly produced one. If such a tightly controlled item can be produced from tightly controlled information, then just how does anyone really think they can stop guns from being made?
Yes, Magione reportedly used a kit, but we’ve covered the FGC-9, which doesn’t require any kits, just parts from the hardware store.
The truth of the matter is that just the possibility that Thompson’s killer used a 3D-printed suppressor illustrates that gun control isn’t a winning strategy. You’re never going to keep things out of the hands of people who want them badly enough. They’ll find a way.
While everyone is going nuts about the gun itself, the suppressor is the bigger issue, which is why no one wants to talk about it.
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