IIRC there is a requirement for polymer guns to have x-ray detectable tracer elements blended in the mix. Highly redundant considering that the metal slide, barrel, ammunition, springs, firing pin, and other components aren't "transparent" undetectable plastic. The whole point is moot with printed guns unless we are only discussing completely polymer molded items, including case and projectile.
Which is still futuristic and out of the reach of the average perp.
Print a gun in metal and it's just as detectable as one cast, milled, and forged.
Apparently the concern still exists in the minds of those who project a lot of speculation about unregistered guns floating around in the hands of criminals. Well, having serial numbers on them, running sales thru NICS and an FFL isn't stopping anything either.
Criminals get guns. Where did the guns come from in the infamous Miami Shootout that killed two FBI agents?
They were stolen from recreational shooters at a local rock pit. Regardless that the owners were armed with loaded guns.
It makes no difference whether we know a gun went thru a documented manufacturing process and was sold to a "legal" owner. It makes no difference that you or I can buy an 80% lower for an AR15, finish it, build a rifle around it, and it has NO serial number on it whatsoever. It makes no difference that it could be stolen from a home in a burglary, or taken from you or me when we get shot in the back at a local range. It makes no difference the gun is traceable or not.
What makes a difference is how it it used.
Gun registration schemes only pinpoint the owners of a firearm so that law enforcement acting under the duress of political appointees can come to your home and seize what guns they know you own.
They can't seize one they don't know you have. Regardless of how it was made or if it has a serial number on it.
If we can learn something from the debacle in Connecticut, it's that the anti gunners are the only one truly afraid of 3D printing of guns. It's mostly a tactic to keep their agenda in the news while they try to enact legislation that bans the sale of any non serial numbered lowers. They are really homing in on ghost guns, the ones they know will come out with no possible way to be traced and seized. Those are the guns they are deathly afraid of, not the 3D guns, because they already exist and will be used by patriots to resist their scheme to disarm us.
You currently have the unrestricted right to buy an 80% lower with no number on it, but the window is going to be closed if the anti gunners have anything to do about it. And that means you can't spend $150 to make your own rifle. You'll be stuck for $150,000 in CNC printing machinery costs to even try.
Or, just bend up a receiver out of steel flats like we did in the '80s. If anything, the focus on 3D is really an example of how little the modern shooter knows about gun manufacturing and how literally easy it can be with the right design.
It's why the BATF tries hard to outlaw submachine gun kits - it only takes a metal tube and some simple skills to get a running gun. Just responding to their elected overseers who don't want us to be able to resist.
