‘Ghost gun’ reveals alleged CEO assassin Luigi Mangione’s links to ‘extreme movement’ taking hold
The “ghost gun” used in the assassination of a CEO in New York has exposed an extreme movement that should terrify us all.
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The “ghost gun” used in the assassination of an insurance company CEO in New York was 3D printed. And its existence points to an extreme movement to make lethal firearms readily available.
Police have confirmed the suspect charged with the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthCare CEO Brian Thompson was arrested in Pennsylvania with a homemade handgun and silencer in his possession.
The “ghost gun” – a term used to describe any untraceable firearm – was mostly 3D-printed, with a few key components purchased as spare parts.
The seized pistol had a 3D printed handle and frame, a metal slide and a metal barrel. This had been threaded to enable a 3D printed silencer to be attached.
New York police say they are not certain if 26-year-old suspect Luigi Mangione had printed or assembled the 9mm gun himself.
Online gun enthusiasts quickly assessed the nature of the gun after a photo was released shortly after Mangione’s arrest.
“For someone who has been building firearms like this for five years, it’s a bit of an odd choice. We’ve been building nicer models,” an anonymous amateur gunsmith told Wired. “This is one of the earliest 3D print Glock styles that was widely tested and successful at creating a reliably functional firearm.”
Cody Wilson of 3D gun distributor Defence Distributed told US media the design was easily identifiable.
“That frame is hard to find,” the creator of the first one-shot fully 3D printed pistol in 2013 said.
“That’s a curious thing about Mr Mangione. It means, to me, that he was at least in orbit of this community years ago, not just recently.”
Garage gunsmiths
“It just speaks to the ease with which you can do this,” says Wilson.
“He (Mangione) doesn’t have to be an expert at 3D printed guns or shooting, and it all works.”
3D printed guns are not illegal in the United States. And a recent attempt by the Biden administration to compel kit makers to identify their work with serial numbers has been delayed by appeals to the US Supreme Court.
Such “ghost guns” can be manufactured from printed plastic, assembled from “spare” parts, or a mixture of both. Many commercially manufactured metal components, such as a pistol’s slide, barrel and trigger, are not regulated.
Combining commercial parts with homemade frames has become the most successful means of bypassing compulsory background checks demanded of buying from a licensed dealer.
“If the gun used in the New York assassination really was 3D printed, it would certainly be the highest-profile crime ever committed with one, and it would be one of a small number overall,” former associate deputy director of the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Tom Chittum told the New York Times.
But these guns are now being marketed online as do-it-yourself kits.
And they’re appearing in Australia.
A 3D printer used for “large scale” firearms production was seized by Queensland police in 2016. Counter-terrorism police recovered a digital design file for a 3D gun in 2021. And WA police seized a hybrid printed and metal part semiautomatic rifle in 2022.
Recent Australian research shows organised crime gangs can “easily access” firearm designs through social networks.
“We interviewed 75 people imprisoned for gun crimes and found some had manufactured firearms or firearm parts,” Deakin University Professor David Bright wrote in 2022.
“However, some interviewees were suspicious of accessing digital design files for fear of leaving online traces that law enforcement could intercept.”
Intercepting these 3D computer-aided design files online would require an effort and technology similar to that being used to detect child pornography.
“Given the relative safety we enjoy in Australia by virtue of our tough gun laws, there are serious concerns about the ease of availability of digital design files for printing firearms,” he adds.
“Restricting the capacity to manufacture firearms is our best defence to ensure our safety.”
Message in a barrel
“I think this is the moment that people like me have been worried about for a long time, which is the moment when these 3D printed guns do become a major vector of gun violence in the United States,” Giffords Law Center gun expert David Pucino told US media.
The idea of homemade guns has inspired gun enthusiasts, technology hobbyists, libertarian ideologues and organised crime operatives to work together to produce ever more reliable designs.
“The ideal goal, the thing we are striving to do, is enable everyone around the world to manufacture firearms and ammo – to be able to have the right to bear arms everywhere, regardless of what the government says,” says the designer of one of the first effective 3D pistols who uses the online handle JStark1809.
Wilson told NPR the weapon in the police photo was known to his community as a Chairmanwon V1.
It is a minor variation of a Glock pistol clone dubbed FMDA (Free Men Don’t Ask) 19.2 first released in 2021.
He added that the silencer appeared to belong to a series of online designs called the FTN series.
“In that acronym, the F stands for an expletive, and the TN is the National Firearms Act, which is the 1934 law that banned silencers.”
A similar slogan was found on the shell casings found outside the New York Hilton Midtown hotel where Thompson was assassinated.
The 9mm casings were reportedly stamped with the words “Deny, Defend, Depose”.
“All individuals are entitled to the utility to defend their humanity,” the FMDA 19.2 kitmaker’s site reads.
“Gun control has failed. You can’t stop the signal.”
Kings College London radicalisation analyst Rajan Basra earlier this year traced the origins of another popular 3D printed pistol to Jakob Duygu, a former German soldier.
“Often, it can take just one event to signal to other would-be attackers a new way of killing people and committing mass murder,” Basra wrote.
“We saw this with vehicle rammings after the attack on Nice’s beachfront in 2016, claimed by Islamic State, which killed 86 people and injured hundreds more. In the months that followed, other jihadis across Europe used the same technique.
“The risk is that a high-profile, mass-casualty attack involving 3D printed guns could inspire other people to do the same.”
Jamie Seidel is a freelance writer | @jamieseidel.bsky.social
Originally published as ‘Ghost gun’ reveals alleged CEO assassin Luigi Mangione’s links to ‘extreme movement’ taking hold
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