The folks at Defense Distributed have successfully test fired the prototype of the world's first entirely 3D-printed firearm, a largely undetectable and potentially untraceable handgun.
The Austin-based not-for-profit group conducted the testing in the prairies of Texas, which involved several rounds of trial runs where the trigger was remotely operated by string before the group's founder, Cody R. Wilson fired the weapon named the 'Liberator' by hand himself.
According to Forbes' Andy Greenberg who documented the test firing, the prototype weapon was able to fire a standard .380 handgun round without visible damage, either to the shooter or the gun itself. However, on one occasion, the gun misfired when the firing pin failed to hit the primer cap in the loaded cartridge due a misalignment in the hammer body. It should be noted that the weapon is limited to certain calibers of ammunition, at least for now, as the gun exploded when Wilson exchanged the Liberator's barrel for a higher-charge 5.7×28 rifle cartridge.
The test firing is briefly shown at the very beginning for the video below, which also announced that Defense Distributed would make Liberator's 3D blueprints available for download today. The first set of Liberator CAD files are now available to download on DEFCAD, an online repository run by Defense Distributed.
Meanwhile, echoing New York Congressman Steve Israel's call for an extension of the ban on plastic firearms, Senator Charles Schumer demanded a new legislation to ban 3D-printable guns. "A terrorist, someone who's mentally ill, a spousal abuser, a felon can essentially open a gun factory in their garage," Schumer said in a press conference. The New York Senator said he would push for a legislation that would "extend an existing ban on undetectable weapons to specifically any gun, magazine or firearm component that would not be detectable by walk-through metal detectors," The New York Post reports.