Cody Wilson, the man who introduced the first 3D-printed gun 18 months ago, has a new machine that will make building a homemade AR-15 rifle easier and cheaper for gun enthusiasts.
Wilson's non-profit group Defense Distributed is now accepting pre-orders for the $1,200 Ghost Gunner, a small, computer-numerically-controlled (CNC) milling machine. The Ghost Gunner can carve the lower receiver of the AR-15 from a piece of aluminum based on a digital model uploaded to a computer that connects to the machine. A key component of a rifle, the lower receiver is the body of the gun and connects to all the other parts, including the stock, barrel and magazine. Under U.S. firearms laws, the lower receiver is the one gun component that is considered a firearm and, thus, also the most regulated part.
The Ghost Gunner requires the user to furnish his own pre-made lower receiver, a piece of metal already shaped like a lower receiver but lacks the holes and cavities to make it into the proper body of a working gun. The pre-made receivers are sometimes called "80 percent lowers" and can cost the user somewhere between $80 to $100 apiece. With an unfinished lower -- which Wilson says is not considered a firearm -- an upper receiver, a parts kit and a magazine, all of which can be purchased anonymously online, users can build a gun in an hour.
"We're making this easier by an order of magnitude," says Wilson.
All in all, the savings are not much when gun enthusiasts purchase the Ghost Gunner as opposed to just purchasing the entire thing already assembled, but the 1-foot-cube rigid black steel box represents Wilson's radical efforts to make the creation of untraceable guns cheaper and easier. Most builders can build their own guns at home without the serial numbers, and no legal prohibitions can prevent them from doing so, but that still requires access to a milling machine that costs hundreds or thousands of dollars to buy.
The milling machine's name is clearly a jab at California State Senator Kevin de Leon, whose proposal to outlaw the creation of homemade guns with no serial numbers, which he calls "ghost guns," was vetoed by anti-gun Governor Jerry Brown. In a press conference earlier this year, de Leon said making gun-making tools more available endangers the general public as it makes it easier for "dangerous individuals like criminals and the mentally unstable" to obtain weapons for criminal purposes.
"The threat is real," he says (video). "We're beginning to see an emerging industry and market for ghost guns. No one knows they exist until after a crime has been committed."
Authorities believe that an AR-15 rifle built from an 80 percent lower was used by John Zawahari, who last year went on a shooting spree in Santa Monica College in California, firing 100 rounds and killing five people before he was shot by the police. The 23-year-old Zawahari had a history of mental instability and was denied a firearm's license after failing to pass a background check.
"This wouldn't be worth doing if Kevin de Leon didn't know about it," says Wilson. "What excites me is giving this world to the politicians. Our strategy is to literalize and reify their nightmare, to give them the world they're talking about."
Wilson says 38 people have already pre-ordered the Ghost Gunner and recommends that buyers purchase their lowers from Ares Armor, a company that has not received a certification to sell and is currently facing a lawsuit from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
"I'm extraordinarily happy that [Wilson] was able to get a product like this out to market and that he's as far along as he is," says Ares Armor CEO Dimitrios Karras. "It's what is needed in the community now. The Second Amendment is consistently under attack. It's very important that people have the ability to be self-sufficient and to progress, not regress."
