Kangaroo Island man Robert Craig Huxtable sentenced for making guns with 3D printer

A young man who made multiple “highly dangerous” homemade weapons on a 3D printer has learned his fate for the “very serious” crimes. See the arsenal he created.

A young Kangaroo Island man who created a “highly dangerous” and loaded working firearm and other gun parts, creating an “unacceptable level of danger” for the public has avoided an immediate jail term.

Robert Craig Huxtable, 25, was arrested at his parents’ Wisanger farm in September 2022 after police discovered he had created a loaded and working 3D printed single shot handgun which “bore traces of gunshot residue” indicating it had been fired and other 3D printed gun parts.

In sentencing, District Court Judge Simon Stretton said police had also found other prohibited weapons during their search, including cross bows and 3D printed knuckle dusters. They also found a copy of the notorious anarchists cookbook.

Robert Craig Huxtable leaves court after an earlier hearing. Picture: Supplied.

“The unsecured existence in the community of so many unlawful firearms, one fully operational and five more in various stages of completion, with the other items, presents an obvious and unacceptable level of danger not the least of which that they may be used and misused by you or others,” he said.

At an earlier hearing the court had also heard Huxtable had 3D printed a working canon, but it was not the subject of the charges.

Judge Stretton said the offending was “very serious” and represented a “great risk and danger to the public”.

“The accumulation of all these items is concerning,” Judge Stretton said.

“The illicit production of handguns and rifles presents a high level of potential and actual danger to the public. The availability of 3D printers and plans for such weapons heightens the risks persons may be tempted and able to commit such offences.

One of the guns police found during their investigations into Robert Huxtable. Picture: SA Police

Images of the weapons found at Robert Huxtable’s Kangaroo Island home. Picture: SA Police

Huxtable had pleaded guilty to six counts of manufacturing a prescribed firearm or firearm part at an earlier hearing.

Judge Stretton found Huxtable was a first offender with no known criminal connections. He said the court was prepared to accept Huxtable made the “highly dangerous items” due to a combination of “isolation, stupidity, technical interest and your immaturity”.

He said Huxtable had made the guns with a “casual and reckless attitude”.

After an earlier hearing, Judge Stretton had adjourned the matter for six months to allow Huxtable to deal with his “extreme” cannabis addiction and said he had since started addressing his addiction, returning multiple negative drug tests in that time.

“All cannabis achieved in your case was a significant emotional numbing which concealed and failed to address any of your real problems,” he said.

He said any suggestion the drug was “harmless” was “quite wrong”.

Judge Stretton said he would have imposed a head sentence of five years, which he reduced to three years and three months after a discount for Huxtable’s early guilty pleas. He suspended that term on condition of a 2-year good behaviour bond which included a condition he complete 300 hours of community service.

Judge Stretton also imposed a firearms prohibition order.