The week at a glance...United States

United States

Austin

Printable gun: Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) this week called for a ban on 3-D-printable plastic weapons after a Texas company announced that it had developed the world’s first such device. Defense Distributed, a collective of gun-rights advocates headed by self-styled “free-market anarchist” Cody Wilson, unveiled “The Liberator” last week, and said it would release blueprints online that anyone could download for free. The handgun fires regular .380 caliber bullets, and its components can be printed out and assembled at home. The design skirts current bans on all-plastic guns by including a single metal component, but that piece can easily be replaced with plastic, making the Liberator practically untraceable at security checkpoints and by metal detectors. “Now anyone, a terrorist, someone who is mentally ill, a spousal abuser, a felon, can essentially open a gun factory in their garage,” Schumer said. “It must be stopped.”

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