Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was speaking at a government function in July when a man sitting a few rows behind him pulled a Liberator, the infamous 3D-printed gun that the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) recently defined as a "lethal weapon."
The gun posed no real danger. The man bearing it was just a TV reporter trying to prove how easy it is to sneak a 3D-printed plastic gun past security checks that include metal detectors.
See also: First 3D-Printed Metal Gun Fires 50 Rounds and Counting
In the United States, a law prohibits amateur gunsmiths from manufacturing undetectable plastic guns to prevent such a scenario. However, the law is set to expire in just a week, on Dec. 9.
The Undetectable Firearms Act (.PDF) was passed in 1988, amid looming fears of plastic or ceramic functioning guns. The law has been renewed without dispute two times since then, in 1998 and 2003. But now that printing a functioning gun made entirely of plastic is actually possible, lawmakers are struggling to renew it. Others want to extend the law and make it even harder for gunsmiths to print guns like the Liberator.
Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) counts himself among the latter group. Israel has advocated for action beyond just reauthorizing the old bill. He's about to reintroduce his reform bill at same time as the House is set to vote on renewing the old one on Tuesday.
"I am a huge fan of 3D printers. I think that they will transform our economy and technology," Israel told Mashable in a phone interview. "I just don't want to make it easier for criminals and terrorists to get guns through metal detectors. "
Israel's new bill will differ from the one he proposed in the spring, according to his spokesperson. It will require two or three major components of a gun to be made of metal, steel or a detectable material. For a handgun, the two components will be the slide and the receiver; for a rifle, they will be the receiver, the slide and the barrel.
But experts and critics think a new law could be an overreach and an attempt to regulate hobbyist gun makers or even 3D printing, which is widely considered a rising industry.
"The Undetectable Firearms Act was always a kind of a fake law that never really affected anyone's activity," Cody Wilson, the founder of 3D-printed guns organization Defense Distributed and creator of the Liberator gun, told Mashable. "Now it's just used for bad faith roundabout gun prohibition, just because these people are scared that digital manufacturing makes more people have guns."
By trying to regulate the manufacturing of 3D-printed guns, Wilson said Israel is just trying to legislate 3D printing indirectly. But Israel denied the accusation.
"That's just a ridiculous stretch," Israel said. "Nobody is regulating 3D printers in this bill. Nobody is regulating the ability of people to acquire digital blueprints in this bill. All this bill does is to stop, to make it harder for people who want to do us harm to get guns through metal detectors."
At the same time, members of the House and Congress are working on bills to reauthorize the Undetectable Firearms Act of 1988 for another 10 years. In the Senate, the bill is sponsored by Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.). In the House, the bill is sponsored by Rep. Howard Coble (R-N.C.) and pro-guns groups like the National Shooting Sports Foundation. The House is set to vote on the bill Tuesday afternoon, according to Coble's spokesperson Ed McDonald.
For George Mocsary, a gun law expert and visiting assistant professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law, renewing the old bill shouldn't be an issue. In his eyes, there's no need to extend it to cover receivers or barrels, like Israel wants to — a provision he defined as "arbitrary."
The old law doesn't really hinder the ability of those involved with guns as a hobby, who either use or manufacture them, Mocsary told Mashable. At the same time, he added, it ensures "invisible guns" can't be brought onto airplanes.
On Nov. 21, Philadelphia became the first city to ban the manufacturing of guns with a 3D printer. But even Steve Cobb, the director of legislation for the bill's author Councilman Kenyatta Johnson, said he doesn't know of any 3D printing gunsmiths in Philadelphia.
"It’s all preemptive," Cobb told Philly Mag. "It’s just based upon Internet stuff out there."
With just a week until the law expires and just a few weeks after the ATF warned of the dangers of 3D-printed guns, the clock is ticking. If the law expires without renewal or reformation, anyone will be legally able to possess, manufacture or sell 3D-printed plastic guns that can fire bullets.
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
BONUS: I 3D Printed a Gun
Image: Robert MacPherson/AFP/Getty Images