Two Britain reporters were able to sneak a plastic gun made with a 3-D printer past security checkpoints onto a crowded Eurostar train leaving London for Paris, a security test subsequently described by their newspaper as an abject failure.
The Daily Mail sent the two reporters to check if the gun, which is capable of firing a .38 caliber bullet, could be snuck past “airport-style” security, which they successfully did. The paper denounced the security breach, which brought on an immediate review by authorities.
“Last night, the train operator began an urgent investigation into the security breach as experts called for airports and public buildings to review their procedures in light of our revelations,” the Daily Mail reported.
Lord West, the former Labour Security Minister, pushed for more government oversight.
“These weapons are extremely dangerous because they are very difficult to detect with the methods we normally use,” he told the Daily Mail. “This is going to be a real problem, no doubt about it. People are going to have to rethink whether we need more checks.”
Defense Distributed, a Texas-based group, earlier this month test-fired the first gun — which it calls the Liberator — made with the 3-D printing technology. The group has loaded all of the weapon’s blueprints online so anyone with a 3-D printer can download the 2 megabyte file and make a gun at home.
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• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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