The blueprint of a 3D-printed plastic gun has reached 100,000 downloads within one week of being available online.
Earlier this week, the blueprint of a 3D-printed plastic gun was made available to Internet users to download. Since then, it has already reached 100,000 downloads. Defense Distributed, the entity that owns the blueprint, told BBC News that it was surprised to see the response the blueprint was getting.
In spite of this success, moves are already afoot to ban the availability of any more such blueprints of DIY guns.
Californian senator Leland Yee said he wanted a law passed to stop the manufacture of 3D-printed guns.
"I plan to introduce legislation that will ensure public safety and stop the manufacturing of guns that are invisible to metal detectors and that can be easily made without a background check," he said in a statement.
According to Defense Distributed, most of the blueprint downloads took place in the United States. Other countries that reported maximum downloads include Spain, Germany, Brazil, and the U.K.
The U.K.'s Metropolitan Police revealed that while downloading the blueprint may not be illegal, people caught in possession of such handguns could lead to immediate arrest.
"To actually manufacture any type of firearm in the UK, you have to be a registered firearms dealer (RFD)," it said in a statement. "Therefore, unless you are an RFD, it would most definitely be an offence to make a gun using the blueprints. It may be legal for an RFD to manufacture a gun this way, as long as they had the necessary authorities."
Defense Distributed is a renowned 3-D gun making organization in America. Founder of the company, Cody Wilson, had announced in March, that he received his manufacturing license for firearms after six months of wait.
Law makers say that since this DIY gun is made of plastic and only has the trigger made of metal, it creates more problems as it is difficult to detect such guns with metal detectors.
