According to RadarOnline.com, alleged CEO shooter Luigi Mangione was able to build his murder weapon using instructions from a “3-D black-market operator” he found on the internet.
Some 3D-printed gun enthusiasts have celebrated the chilling crime.
Mangione is said to have used a 3D-printed “ghost gun” to murder UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson.
According to gun rights group Defense Distributed, Gatalog, a rival group that publishes designs for 3D-printed guns and accessories online, provided Mangione with the files and instructions he needed to complete his weapon and silencer.
Defense Distributed is currently involved in a lawsuit with Gatalog, accusing them of illegally trafficking digital firearms information, which Defense Distributed handles legally.
The lawsuit refers to Gatalog as a “full-fledged criminal racketeering enterprise.”
The complaint condemns: “The Gatalog is a black-market operator in the worst sense, achieving its illegal ends with dangerously illegal means of criminal wire fraud, money laundering, extortion, and even threatened murder, stealing business from Defense
Distributed – the only firm serious enough to do the work legally – and distorting an otherwise thriving and compliance market in digital firearms information.”
According to the lawsuit, Gatalog celebrated and promoted their supposed role in Mangione’s alleged act.
Other experts said it shouldn’t have been difficult for Mangione, an Ivy League graduate with a tech background, to print his own piece using online files.
According to Matt Schroeder, a senior researcher for the Small Arms Survey, 3D-printed weapons can be manufactured and assembled by people with little or no technical knowledge.
“3-D-printed weapons have not yet supplanted factory-built weapons in criminal circles, but if and when they do, we will have to completely rethink our approach to small arms control.”
Mangione is accused of using a “ghost gun,” which is a potentially untraceable weapon that can be built at home from scratch or using weapon parts kits.
The 26-year-old was discovered in an Altoona, Pennsylvania McDonald’s with a backpack containing a “ghost gun” and silencer. According to police, both the weapon and the silencer were made with a 3D printer and readily available metal parts, raising concerns that “homemade” weapons will be used more frequently in crimes.
In 2022, federal officials recovered more than 25,000 homemade guns, and earlier this year, President Joe Biden issued an executive order establishing an Emerging Firearms Threats Task Force to combat unregistered 3D-printed guns.
Guns similar to the ones Mangione is accused of using in the crime are reasonably priced, with one website selling a 3D printer starter kit for around $300. This includes blueprints for a.22 caliber pistol as well as filament, the material used by the printer.
Along with multiple bogus IDs, the “ghost gun” and a silencer, Mangione was caught with a handwritten “Manifesto” listing his grievances against healthcare insurance firms.
The manifesto allegedly stated, “It has to be done. These parasites had it coming. I do not wish to cause any distress, but it had to be done.”
Mangione has been charged with first-degree murder, as well as two counts of second-degree murder, one of which is classified as a terrorism-related crime.
He is also accused of possessing firearms and counterfeit devices.
