If you set out looking for an enemy, you’ll find one. Hell, you’ll create one if you have to. That is precisely what New York gun controllers are devoting their energy to these days, as they target what they say radicals refer to as the “New Second Amendment,” groups of like-minded individuals who share information on 3D printing and how to use it to develop and improve privately made firearms technology. Make no mistake, these groups, known as “3D2A” and ”3D Printing For All,” are now being investigated for nothing more than being gun enthusiasts who use open-source websites to share files and schematics of their own designs. But let’s face it, the left has always been more concerned with the right to execute infants in the womb, mutilate and pervert children at an early age, and overrun America with illegal immigrants than they have ever been with the First Amendment, much less the Second.
While bought and paid for law enforcement political brass continue to perpetuate the lie that 3D-printed firearms are among the fastest-growing threats to public safety, they never bring up the fact that there really are no such things as “ghost guns,” which is an only recently made-up term to describe privately made firearms, an American tradition that goes back to the Founding. Yes, Americans have been making their own legal firearms at home, without serial numbers, since the 1700s. So what has changed? Other than technology, nothing. Sure, people can make more advanced 3D printed designs now that look and function more like the commercial products, but there has never been any law that says privately made firearms have to be made from popsicle sticks and used with the prevailing fear of needing someone else to open your ketchup bottles for the rest of your life.
Courtney Nilan is Deputy Chief of the NYPD Intelligence Division and has wasted years of her life and countless taxpayer dollars trying to redefine and demonize yet another long-standing tradition included in the right to bear arms.
“If they put out their manifesto/constitution, they call 3D2A the ‘New Second Amendment.’ They are heavy into their ideology, big, anti-government, anti-establishment. They believe everybody, everybody should be able to have a gun, should be able to make a gun label, and they’re calling it the ‘New Second Amendment,’” Nilan said to amNewYork.
Nilan is really showing off her skills as a grifter here, acting as if there is anything inherently untoward about using a made-up moniker, similar to how she uses the term “ghost guns.” She also acts as if there is something wrong with harboring a deep-seated lack of trust in a government that pretends the plain text of the Second Amendment is so complex that it actually means the opposite of what it says. Everybody should be able to have a gun? Yes, Courtney, that’s precisely what the Constitution says. You swore an oath to preserve and defend it, so maybe try reading it.
“That’s where the problem comes in, because then anybody with nefarious purposes, those people who could not get a firearm, who in their state, they can’t get the kit shipped to them anymore, they could, very easily, download that design to their computer, they plug it into their 3D printer, and they basically are good to go… We’re seeing those people with felony convictions that can’t get a gun legally, or that have nefarious purposes, we’re seeing them in 3D print,” said Nilan.
First of all, if you want some hunk of garbage that may get a shot or two off before destroying itself, sure, okay. But if you’re going to make a durable firearm that can compete with commercial firearms sold on the market, it takes a bit more than your highly disingenuous depiction. The fact that privately made firearms can be made from more sophisticated designs and manufacturing processes in 2025 does not change that this has been a protected activity since the founding of America. Further, it should be noted that technological advancements are a reality across all spectrums of life, especially as they pertain to law enforcement and surveillance capabilities. So why is it that the first answer is always to infringe upon civil liberty?
Police in New York say that efforts to remove firearms within the city are being doubled, as Mayor Eric Adams and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch announced in a June press conference that approximately 3,000 guns have been taken off city streets so far in 2025.
“This is clearly a 3D-printed gun, and we had a case a few days ago of serious threats to police officers, and upon a search warrant, there were 3D-printed guns that were there… Getting our federal partners to do everything possible to keep these guns off the street, they have to catch up to the 3D printing industry,” according to Adams.
But dangerous confrontations, including armed exchanges, have been a reality of police work as long as law enforcement has been around, and criminals with the will and capability to harm the innocent, police or otherwise, are nothing new. Violent gangs and the criminal underworld have never had a difficult time getting guns, and additional gun control will only hurt those who are dedicated to following the law in the first place, giving additional advantage to those whom gun controllers purport to protect us from.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, currently prosecuting Luigi Mangione for allegedly murdering United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson with a privately made firearm, says his office has been working closely with Deputy Chief Nilan through a joint “Ghost Gun Initiative” to remove more of these guns from New York’s streets.
“As technology continues to evolve, ghost guns and 3D-printed firearms continue to pose a threat to public safety. To address the proliferation of these dangerous weapons, my office has partnered closely with Deputy Chief Nilan and the NYPD through our Ghost Gun Initiative to remove guns off our streets, stay ahead of emerging trends, and advocate for new legislation – leading to significant progress… We will continue to comprehensively address gun violence through collaboration with our legislative and law enforcement partners. We are extremely grateful to Deputy Chief Nilan for her extraordinary leadership and the NYPD for their close collaboration,” said Bragg.
It seems, however, that such an initiative stands on shaky legal ground, for now, other than efforts to change the law, as nothing about making privately manufactured firearms with a 3D printer constitutes a violation, and they even admit it.
“In theory it’s not illegal. You’re selling a little baggie of not illegal parts. You’re selling a file. So there’s a lot of different aspects… If someone’s ordering those parts, we can prove that if somebody has those parts, the only thing they’re gonna use those parts for is to build firearms. So, it still involves a lot of the power investigating. Now, it’s still a lot with the postal inspectors. It’s still a lot of old school physical surveillance sometimes,” Nilan said.
Aside from not being able to articulate a coherent thought on the matter, Nilan and her cohorts seem to be fighting a battle that they are not yet entitled to take on, as a measure to ban 3D printing gun parts is currently sitting in the New York State Senate waiting to be voted upon. But it’s New York, so who’s going to stop them? For the rest of us, the effort is a stark reminder that Democrats want our ability to resist tyranny demolished, and they don’t care whether we’re talking about traditionally manufactured firearms, guns built from eighty percent kits, or even those built from scratch. This, like all other gun control, is about nothing more than the subjugation of the American people.
Read the full article here
