In the wake of the alleged shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brina Thompson with a 3D printed gun, the campaign of fearmongering against 3D printed guns by the mass media has picked up with rapid force. The rather ironically named Samira Shackle wrote an article on the story of, apparently, Finnish Neo-Nazis who made FGC-9s and planned a terror attack using them. Other hit pieces have been made, but today, our focus is on a YouTube video that came out recently from Channel 4 News’ YouTube subsidiary, 4 Crime.
Since this is a video, our review is going to be a bit different today – I’ll be giving a watch-through and a rough play-by-play with timestamps and the occasional quote. First, the description and accreditation.
Investigative journalist Snake Denton delves into the chilling world of 3D-printed firearms and the legal loopholes that make these weapons a growing threat in the UK.
In the aftermath of the recent New York shooting, news is emerging that Luigi Mangione, the man accused of shooting United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, may have used a 3D printed “ghost gun”. Join Snake as he meets with experts, explores the grey areas of UK law, and reveals the real-world implications of this shocking exploit.
Presenter: Snake Denton
Production company: MiddlechildThanks to Peter Squires, advisor to the NCA.
You know just from the use of “chilling,” “growing threat,” and “shocking exploit” that this is gonna be a fantastic piece of propaganda.
Polymer 80 Alternative
Part 1: Introducing Snake
0:00 – Dear Lord. There’s something… off-putting about this guy. For someone named Snake, he lacks the long hair, stubble, and eyepatch I expected. The guy’s walking around his room to give the illusion of going somewhere, but he’s going nowhere in this generic office building. I hope to God his public persona isn’t reflective at all of his real-life personality.
0:12 – “That’s terrifying.”
The host says this as an FGC-9 is shown on screen. It was reasonably obvious that a Brit would make one of these, as an FGC-9 of basically any variation can be fabricated in the UK with zero restricted materials, but to be “terrified” of it showcases serious hoplophobia – the irrational fear of arms or armaments.
0:25 – “I’m one click of a button away from 5 years in prison.”
Sounds like that just goes to show how ridiculous British law is. Not to mention I have my doubts that this will stop you since you’re in America to shoot this.
0:33 – “Surely we need to make it more difficult for people to download these blueprints.”
No, and given the blueprints were released in America to the world wide web, nothing will stop them from circulating. I really cannot iterate how out of touch this statement is – it is impossible to, as they say, put the genie back in the bottle.
0:57 – “Like a lot of young guys, I spend a hell of a lot of time on the internet.”
I think we have different tastes.
1:39 – A reference to 3D printed guns being found in Bradford, Birmingham (not surprising), Scotland (not clear where in Scotland), and London. Notably, the headline for the latter article doesn’t mention the guns were 3D printed – only that blank guns were being converted to function as live weapons using printed parts.
1:57 – The claim is made that 3D printed guns are becoming popular with “extremists, particularly far-right groups online.” This highly contrasts with reality – the most prominent users of 3D printed guns on a global scale are the Burmese rebels, who are neither extremists nor far-right, and Irish paramilitaries, who, per the last time I read the IRA Green Book, “[seek] a third, socialist alternative” for Ireland. Doesn’t sound very far-right to me.
2:07 – Peter Squires, the NCA Firearms Control Advisor, makes an appearance talking about police concern over 3D printed guns and introducing our key player: the FGC-9. Classic playing up the threat by suggesting this is the gun a mass shooter would want, ignoring of course how well that went the last time someone used a printed gun in a mass shooting. Squires, funny enough, completely forgets the Halle synagogue shooting – maybe it’s because the shooter, in his own words, “certainly managed to prove how absurd improvised weapons are.”
2:40 – Hoplophobia starts setting in hard and Snake starts getting the heebie-jeebies now that he knows anyone around him could be secretly printing guns in their living room.
2:51 – To give him credit, he used the actual full name for the FGC-9, with no censoring. Respectable.
3:12 – Wow, we’re looking somewhat up here. He mentions, while horribly mangling the pronunciation of Myanmar, the fact that the Burmese rebel groups fighting the junta are using FGC-9s. Also mentions the Irish paramilitaries too.
4:25 – Snake talks about trying to figure out how to download the files for the FGC-9 and worrying it might be illegal – which honestly feels like an infringement on his journalistic integrity. Jake Hanrahan went as far as to visit the original designer of the FGC-9 before he died, and frankly I’m surprised the police didn’t try to shake Stark’s identity or the location of his print lab out of him. You could at least steel up a bit more.
5:30 – Snake gets his printer – a Bambu Lab P1S – and sticks it right at his bedside table, directly on its baseplate, with its rubber foot pads floating above the ground. I question whether the printer’s gonna wobble when printing.
6:00 – Apparently not, but the montage showing the grip getting printed just shows him looking at it, filming it, reading magazines, and even brushing his teeth. Feels like this could’ve been shot better, him going out and about with the camera still focused on the printer. Lost opportunity.
Part 2: The Snow Job
8:00 – “John,” aka Mr.Snow.Makes, is willing to help Snake make the parts that are illegal under British law so he can prove the FGC-9 works. It’s not clear if Snake brings the same filament with him that he used to make the other parts to indisputably prove his point, but that’s pulling at straws. I do question why he claims the lower receiver is illegal when it’s not a “pressure-bearing” part, which are the components of a firearm that are illegal to possess in Europe.
8:25 – After saying he could be placing a fully complete gun in his bag without anyone knowing, the sinister music cue hits. He stands there, looking like an emo 20 years out of place, and slowly raises the bag up with some people watching him on their phones, wondering “wtf is this guy doing” in the background. Snake is also not clear on whether his bag was checked, or whether he went through security with it – he’s carrying it when he goes through the airport in Florida but shows a shot of the baggage tram loading bags onto his flight.
9:44 – Snow shows Snake his workshop. I am immediately envious – forget about the printed guns. He’s got all sorts of fun guns sitting in racks and cases along the wall, filled to the brim with rifles, pistols, shotguns. I asked Snow, while completely failing to get a quote for this article, what the caliber of the Thompson/Center Contender on his wall was. “.44 Magnum.” God bless him for picking a reasonably affordable option and not something silly like 7-30 Waters.
10:59 – In the only flaw I can really find in Snow’s response to Snake so far is when Snake asks if there’s a DIY version of the FGC-9 barrel. Snow doesn’t clarify that the FGC-9’s barrel is DIY. That was one of the instrumental parts of why the FGC-9 was made.
11:55 – The way Snake picks up the finished FGC-9 is one of the most incredibly awkward moments in this so far. The guy’s picking it up like he’s never so much as grabbed a water pistol before. He also calls an 85% plastic gun “heavy” and apparently has an existential crisis so strong that he puts the gun down less than 30 seconds after picking it up. Yes, I’m sure it was probably longer, but the cut makes it seem very short.
12:24 – Snake feels conflicted about shooting the FGC-9, since it proves his hypothesis right – that anyone can print a gun, even someone from one of the most restrictive societies in the West today. I don’t really know why he’s so conflicted. He should be happy he’s getting to do something fun and different, something he would never be allowed to do back in Britain. Instead, it’s “terrifying.” To quote Snow himself, “This is the reason you lost the colonies.”
12:52 – Shoutout to Volusia Top Gun Indoor Gun Range for being based enough to allow 3D printed guns to be fired and/or tested there.
12:57 – I should point out that Snow is loading the FGC-9 with a blank round, not a live one. It makes what comes next even funnier.
13:10 – Snake grabs the gun with the least confidence of anyone I’ve ever seen at a gun range. He awkwardly aims the gun, then turns back and asks if his gun will make a noise like someone in the next lane. Snake then does the daftest thing – he holds the gun downrange for what feels like a fortnight before pulling the trigger. He looks away, sets the gun down, and they pull the untouched, unmolested target closer to him to take a look – and he steps out of the range and goes back to the car to have this big existential crisis.
Part 3: Serpentine Resolutions
14:43 – Snake probably unintentionally insults Snow by calling him an “[expert] on gun control and gun safety.” I don’t think he understands Snow is very much anti-gun control.
14:51 – “Maybe these documents need to be criminalized.”
Wow, kudos to you. A major figure in the world of guncad comes and is willing to help be a part of your particularly anti-gun documentary. He’s kind, shows you the stuff you’d go to jail for if you didn’t spend thousands to fly from England to Florida, loads the gun, puts up with you standing there awkwardly in the lane looking like you’re about to cry, and THIS is what you have to say about the foundation of his entire existence as a public figure? Shame on you. Shame on you a thousand times more for being so incredibly disrespectful to your host, and in the back seat of what could very well be his own car to boot.
15:17 – Snake goes to Birmingham, a loathsome city according to Jeremy Clarkson, to meet with their Parliamentarian – a rabid anti-gunner. He also refers to Birmingham as “our constituency,” which would explain a lot.
15:32 – Snake gleefully talks about how he hopes the MP will take the threat of 3D printed guns seriously when he shows her the parts he printed. How disgraceful. He’s also afraid he’ll scare her and “ruin the interview” with the gun parts – which is balderdash considering you know very well she was informed about this beforehand.
16:02 – Preet Kaur Gill is Labour? Ah, so she’s a literal socialist, presumably, just like her party leader has openly admitted to being. That explains the whole being anti-gun thing. Socialists have used that trick after getting power to disarm entire populations before abusing and, in some cases, mass murdering them. Yes, I know the latter is extremely unlikely for the British government to pursue, but socialists will do whatever they can do when given the opportunity, hence why they must be ardently kept out of elected office. There’s a reason Starmer’s approval ratings have nosedived.
16:25 – Snake suggests you can find the plans for the FGC-9 on social media. I’ve never seen them there, and last I checked, Odysee wasn’t a social media platform,
16:42 – Preet gives the least convincing “I’m scared” comment I’ve seen this show. Also, Snake’s got something in his hair. Just noticed.
17:08 – Preet suggests that firearms blueprints should be banned solely because it’s already illegal to manufacture firearms. If people making the guns are already doing it illegally, then why would they be stopped by making the technical data illegal? Preet of course had to table a bill to make it illegal to possess gun blueprints in the UK and says it should be made more difficult.
Guess what, Preet. This is 3DGunBuilder. We provide people access to the plans for firearms for informative purposes. That’s not going to stop. Also, we’re American, so your authoritarian efforts to infringe on people’s right to bear arms has no bearing here. Ask the 8,500 Brits who fell thanks to Britain infringing on American freedoms by trying to seize the armories at Lexington and Concord how well that worked out for them. You and every other socialist whelp in your whole country are disgraceful subhuman slime who should never be allowed to hold a position of governance in England again, and God willing the British people will wake up and bury your whole party so deep next election, even Clement Attlee himself couldn’t dig up its grave.
18:17 – “But what intentions would someone in the UK have for making these weapons?”
…self-defense? I mean, your country bans knives, pepper spray, construction objects, and countless other non-gun means of protecting yourself. The criminals couldn’t care less about your laws and view the bans on defending yourself as making you an easy target. Why would a Brit not want a means to keep themselves safe when someone who already has no respect for the legal system tries to violate their liberties?
18:24 – Snake openly admits the intent of the entire article. He says that Brits can’t wait for a mass shooting to happen with a printed gun to ban them and take the blueprints out of circulation. He asks “are we too late?” and the answer is “yes, yes you are.”
Conclusion
It’s finally over. This whole thing had some okay moments, and for what it’s worth, the 4 Crime team deserves at least the bare minimum amount of credit for going to the US to make this. Props to Snow too – from what he’s said on Twitter regarding the filming, the team that made this pisspot propaganda piece apparently actually enjoyed getting their hands on the first masculine thing they’ve handled since giving their dad a hug. And I’ll say it – they unequivocally did him dirty on this. He treated them with respect, answered their questions, and they went in his own car and started talking about how bad 3D printed guns were. They then scuttled on back to Britain and started going on about how Britain should purge the internet of these plans.
What a bunch of snakes.
Polymer 80 Alternative
