Rueben Dass
Ghost guns, in particular 3D-printed guns, have been gaining popularity among youth, with several criminal violent extremist examples in recent years. Just this month, a 13-year-old boy was arrested in Washington for possessing a large cache of weapons and making threats to carry out a school shooting. Among the collection of 23 firearms, several were manufactured with a 3D-printer. This past summer, in July 2025, 18-year-old Felix Winter was tried in court for plotting a mass shooting at his school in Edinburgh. Winter, who was 15 when he committed the offence, was motivated by neo-Nazi ideology and had idolised the 1999 Columbine school shooters. He had intended to use a 3D-printer to manufacture the guns to be used in the shooting.
Further, in March 2024, Italian police apprehended a 23-year-old for attempting to manufacture and build a 3D-printed FGC-9 rifle. He was a proponent of anarchist ideology and had intended to build weapons to be disseminated to the wider anarchist movement. In the same year, Greek police dismantled a firearm manufacturing and trafficking ring comprised of three 19-year-olds and one 20-year-old. The cell was in possession of a cache of weapons, including a 3D-printed Glock frame and an unfinished FGC-9 MKII rifle, and had received information on how to manufacture the firearms from external parties.
These are just a few examples that showcase the alarming and increasing trend of 3DPF cases involving youth below the age of 24. Furthermore, several of these cases are linked to violent extreme right-wing ideology. Between 2018 and August 2025, there were at least 80 cases of youth involved with 3DPFs globally.¹ This Insight aims to shed light on the global trends pertaining to youth involvement with 3DPFs and is an update to the author’s report on global proliferation trends of 3DPFs.
Figure 1: Youth Involvement by Year.
There has been a steady year-on-year increase in youth involvement with 3DPF between 2021 and 2024 (Figure 1). Youth involvement here refers to the activities as mentioned in Figure 4, including the possession, manufacturing, and trafficking of these weapons across the criminal and terrorist spectrum. Fourteen youth cases have been recorded this year (as of August). The increase in the number of cases post-2021 may be a consequence of an increase in media reporting on 3DPFs, as the data analysed here is sourced primarily from media reports. Nevertheless, it does highlight the growing involvement of youth with 3DPFs. This coincides with the proliferation of blueprints and information regarding 3DPFs on the clear web and the increased accessibility of this technology.
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