• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Saturday, May 28, 2022
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home National

TSA Confident It Can Detect 3D-Printed ‘Ghost Guns’

Kyle Qualls by Kyle Qualls
08/03/18
in National
A 3D-printed Liberator pistol

A Liberator pistol appears next to the 3D printer on which its components were made in Hanover, Maryland, on July 17, 2013. Photo: AFP

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Guns made with a 3D printer, or “ghost guns,” have no serial number and are made almost entirely out of plastic, but the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is confident it can prevent them from getting past airport security.

“We have detection capabilities that are proven, and we actually have a record of detecting and catching these guns at the checkpoint,” Michael Bilello, the Assistant Administrator of Public Affairs at the TSA, told The Globe Post.

The blueprints for 3D-printable guns were made available for download in 2013 by Cody Wilson, the owner of Defense Distributed, a defense technology development company. Wilson was told by the federal government to take the blueprints down.

The Trump administration, however, allowed Wilson to re-upload his blueprint. A federal judge ruled Tuesday that it was illegal for the blueprints to be online and they had been taken down for the time being, but thousands of people were able to download them before they were taken down.

I am looking into 3-D Plastic Guns being sold to the public. Already spoke to NRA, doesn’t seem to make much sense!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 31, 2018

Currently, eight states are suing the Trump administration for allowing these guns to be made available, and 20 State Attorneys General have signed a letter for the State Department urging them to intervene.

There have been four incidents since August of 2016 in which the TSA has detected 3D-printed guns. Three of them were detected during checkpoint screenings with the other during a TSA precheck. Once found, all of the items were “voluntarily abandoned.”

“Once we knew this was coming to market, there was a possibility that it would come to checkpoints,” Bilello said. “We immediately put a lot of new protocols, a lot of new procedures in place.”

In July 2017, the TSA began implementing heightened security measures which require electronics bigger than a cell phone to be taken out of bags and put in a separate bin when going through security.

On Monday, the TSA announced a rollout plan for computed tomography (CT) scanners which will allow for better images of the contents of bags when going through security.

“The system applies sophisticated algorithms for the detection of explosives and creates a 3-D image that can be viewed and rotated on three axes for thorough visual image analysis by a TSA officer,” said the TSA in a press release.

NEWS: TSA announces new X-ray technology roll-out plan. Read the full press release: https://t.co/nJgDFwplZH pic.twitter.com/iX7PzgTWaa

— TSA (@TSA) July 30, 2018

3D-printed guns are allowed to be transported in checked baggage in accordance with federal regulations, but there are no accounts of them getting past a metal detector.

Timothy Lytton, a law professor at Georgia State University, warned, however, that 3D-printed guns can come in a variety of shapes, and it can make the job of the TSA more difficult. 

“It’s really just a matter of them [TSA] being able to figure out what the gun looks like, but that may be problematic in that you can print guns in a variety of shapes and sizes that are not metal,” he told The Globe Post. “Then it becomes a question of whether or not the TSA would be able to pick those up in luggage checks.”

Share9Tweet
Kyle Qualls

Kyle Qualls

Related Posts

President Donald Trump and US Attorney General William Barr step off Air Force One upon arrival at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland last September 1, 2020.
National

US Attorney General Says No Evidence of Decisive Election Fraud

by Staff Writer
December 2, 2020
Smoke rises from the site of an attack on Tuesday after a massive explosion the night before near the Green Village in Kabul, Afghanistan
Featured

Afghan War Crimes Probe Must Go Ahead, ICC Judges Say

by Staff Writer
March 5, 2020
Senior Sales Staff Mark Warner shows a bump stock installed on an AR-15 rifle at Blue Ridge Arsenal in Chantilly, Virgina, on October 6, 2017.
Opinion

New Arms Exports Rule Will Spread US Gun Violence Beyond Borders

by Adotei Akwei
January 30, 2020
NATO to Review Iraq Mission After Parliament Votes to Expel US Forces
Featured

NATO to Review Iraq Mission After Parliament Votes to Expel US Forces

by Staff Writer
January 6, 2020
US President Donald Trump
Featured

How the World is Reacting to US Killing of Top Iran General

by Staff Writer
January 3, 2020
US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Featured

In Historic Reversal, US Will No Longer Consider Israeli Settlements Illegal

by Staff Writer
November 18, 2019
Next Post
The president of Afghanistan Mohammad Ashraf Ghani.

Real-Time Evaluation of Afghan President Ghani’s Peace Policy

Trump and Kim collage

N.Korea has Not Stopped Nuclear, Missile Programs [UN Report]

Please login to join discussion

Recommended

The Onion

‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens’

May 25, 2022
police line

Teen Gunman Kills 15 at Texas Elementary School

May 24, 2022
refugees

More Than 100 Million People Forcibly Displaced, UN Says

May 23, 2022
Volkswagen logo

German Farmer Sues Volkswagen Over CO2 Emissions

May 20, 2022
Vladimir Putin

Russia Says Economy Grew 3.5 Percent in First Quarter

May 18, 2022
Mexico missing people

Over 100,000 People Reported Missing in Mexico, Data Reveals

May 17, 2022

Opinion

A Lebanese election official stands at a polling station

New Group Threatens Lebanese Elections… and Potentially Middle East Peace

May 18, 2022
A man holding a gun

Safely Back in USA, Land of Guns and Burgers

May 2, 2022
China Muslim Uyghurs

Unfair Politicization, Corruption, and the Death of Modern Olympism

April 23, 2022
Ukraine war

The Ukrainian Refugee Crisis and the Hierarchies of Western Compassion

April 20, 2022
Chinese leader Xi Jinping

How Wrong ‘How China Can End the War in Ukraine’ Is

April 1, 2022
Ukraine children

The War for Ukraine’s Lives and Minds

March 30, 2022
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post