Man sells dozens of 3D-printed guns at Houston's 1st gun buyback
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
A Houston man on Saturday sold dozens of homemade 3-D printed guns to the city at its first-ever gun buyback event, Fox 26's Matthew Seedorff reported.
The man, who chose to remain anonymous, told Fox 26 that "the goal was not personal profit, but to send [Houston leaders] a message about spending $1 million tax dollars on something that has no evidence of any effect on crime."
The man traded in 62 3D-printed guns, often referred to as 'ghost guns,' and received $50 per gun. He claimed making the weapons only cost $3 each, he told Fox 26. The large trade-in of non-traditionally-crafted firearms has prompted city officials to change guidance for future buybacks.
"We're going to exclude those next time around," Mayor Sylvester Turner said to Fox 26. "This is a program designed for people who want to voluntarily relinquish their guns."
"You'll always have people who will try and take advantage of the programs," Turner added. "I was there when that person brought in those guns. The reason we went ahead and did that was we had not said we weren't going to."
We have all seen the photo of ghost guns someone took to the gun buyback event to exchange for gift cards this past Saturday. Mayor @SylvesterTurner told https://t.co/b0gszPA8vI and ABC 13 today that those guns will not be accepted at the next event. pic.twitter.com/0VtirWXfNS — Mary Benton (@IAmMaryBenton) August 1, 2022
Officials from the mayor's office said the city collected more than 840 guns and gave participants $50, $100, $150, and $200 Visa gift cards, depending on the gun type: $50 for broken guns, $100 for shotguns and rifles, $150 for handguns, and $200 for automatic weapons.
The buyback event is part of Mayor Turner's sweeping anti-crime initiative "One Safe Houston." The program has $53 million in federal dollars to carry out a number of different initiatives designed to reduce violent crime across the city; Mayor Turner said $1 million of those federal dollars are earmarked for gun buyback events like Saturday's, according to Fox 26.
Despite the anonymous man's apparent gaming of the initiative, Mayor Turner called Saturday's buyback a success. City officials have at least two more buyback planned in the near future, the Mayor told Fox 26.
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Nice profit. Not sure they got his point though....
Yeah. Sure.
"...$100 for shotguns and rifles..."
...but the city's not taking advantage of Granny and what to do with Larry's old gun collection.
"...$50 for broken guns..."
Why would they even pay for something that's not the problem?
It could be a bigger part of the problem than most of us would assume. Broken guns can be fixed, but while they are “broken” (whatever that might mean), they are cheap to buy, and that makes them appealing to criminals.
It would appear your not getting his point either...
If the single shot 3d printed pistols he produced cost $3 apiece to make how much more do you think it would be to print this? $10-15?
“The large trade-in of non-traditionally-crafted firearms has prompted city officials to change guidance for future buybacks.”
Printed guns have been touted as a threat. They can’t have it both ways - if they’re going to buy potential guns then they buy them all and smile about it.
Why would that be? My comment was not about the guy printing 3D guns. My comment was an answer to the question:
I even quoted the question I was answering. And that question was asked in response to the bit about paying $50 bucks for broken guns.
This thread is not about 3D guns unless there is some unspoken thing I don’t know about, but I can only respond to what’s in front of me. I’m not a mind reader.
To expand on what I said earlier, broken guns and incomplete guns are often of more use to criminals than the fully manufactured variety.
I don’t know how much the materials cost. How much does a 3D printer cost? How much for the computer and the software that runs it? You have to factor that in, too.
According to this story , it’s a lot more than $10-15.
A good 3D printer with case is about $1,000 (prices vary ... just giving a ballpark). The software to run it is typically free if you simply print what others have designed. But if you were to design your own gun then you would need CAD/CAM software like Fusion 360 which is $$$. However, there is a free version for individual use.
So, per your point, unless someone has a 3D printer already for other uses, there is no value in buying one to print guns.
By the way, it is possible to rent time on 3D printers.
As for the cost per gun given a printer, a roll of filament costs about $20 and that is about 1kg of plastic. 3D printers do not print solid plastic (they include complex fills ... like honeycomb patterns) so 1kg can produce an impressive number of prints. I would not be surprised if a single roll could print half a dozen complete guns.
Per the link..