Rep. Steve Israel announced Thursday that he is trying to renew the Undetectable Firearms Act.
With the rapidly expanding abilities of 3D printers, Israel, D-Dix Hills, announced at the Nassau County Police Second Precinct in Woodbury that he is seeking the renewal of an act so "lone wolves" can't print firearms.
"There are new technologies that are being developed so rapidly that it is now possible for a lone wolf, a terrorist in…the basement of a house, to use a 3D printer," to print high-capacity magazines of bullets and eventually a gun that can fire them, he said.
Nassau County Police Chief Steven Skrynecki called the issue a legitimate "threat to our anti-terrorism efforts."
"When police encounter somebody [with a printed gun], it's very dangerous to the individual, very dangerous to the officer responding, and very dangerous to the public at large," said Skrynecki, emphasizing the danger of the plastic gun's ability to defeat metal detectors.
Israel presented a YouTube clip from Defense Distributed that shows how well the plastic, printed bullets hold up in a rifle.
"He has the right to be a moron, but I don't have to necessarily listen," said Israel of the clip that shows someone shooting 86 printed bullets from a rifle.
"I am introducing legislation that would simply reauthorize the act for another 10 years."
The original act, Israel explained, was passed and signed in 1988 under President George Bush Sr. and renewed in 2003 under President George W. Bush.
"3D printers are going to change the world and if used correctly, will change the world for the better," said Israel. "I am not regulating 3D printers…but using it to create a homemade firearm that can kill and escape detection by metal detectors, that's not fine."
