I thoroughly enjoyed working with Dan Rassler on this new article on malevolent use of emerging #technologieswww.tatup.de/index.php/ta...

In addition to discussing motives, the piece also surveys the rich history of privately manufactured firearms by extremists, provides a brief primer on 3D printing, and summarizes the current 'state of the art' in #3Dprinted#firearms. /12

Finally, the fouth and final reoccurring motive appears to be financial, either as a means fop a means of financing other activities or simply profiting by selling firearms within an extremist milieu. /11

Thirdly, 3D-printed firearms can serve as alternatives to conventional firearms. Interestingly, rather than being used alongside conventional firearms, 3DPF are often found in conjunction with explosive devices. /10

he second motivation involves using #3D-printedwww.justice.gov/usao-ednc/pr...

While not included in the article, a perfect example of this can be seen in a recent case involving the '3D Amendment' #Telegram#3D printers to create firearms adorned with Nazi symbols. /8

The first factor is symbolic and ideological, where acquiring or making a 3D-printed firearm exceeds material benefits and is seen ideologically. I briefly discussed this in 2021 International Centre for Counter-Terrorism piece. 7/ www.icct.nl/publication/...

CTRL, HATE, PRINT: Terrorists and the Appeal of 3D-Printed Weapons

This summer two separate individuals with links to the extreme right were arrested or convicted in the United Kingdom (UK) on charges including offenses related to 3D-printed firearms. On 14 June, Dea...

Diving into the data, I found that contrary to the prevalent narrative, RWE not only adopted #3DPF as an alternative to conventional firearms. Instead, I identified four (often overlapping) drivers for its adoption among extremist milieus. /6

I should mention that while this article is now published, I will continue to collect data on this phenomenon as I expect it to grow further. In fact, since this article was accepted for publication in early June, the dataset has grown to 37 cases. 5/

Between 2017 and June 1, 2024, a dataset of 35 cases of RWE using, acquiring, manufacturing, or attempting to manufacture #3Dprinted firearms was compiled. Two things immediately struck me in the data: the broad geographical spread & the exponential growth year after year. 4/