Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Wednesday he wants a nationwide crackdown on 3D-printed firearms.
His call expands on legislation backed by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul that would require safeguards to prevent consumer-grade printers from producing illegal guns and gun parts.
Hochul promoted the proposal as part of her 2026 State of the State agenda this week after first previewing it earlier this month.
The plan would mandate that 3D printers sold in New York include technology designed to block the unlicensed manufacture of firearms and key components. It would also criminalize the possession, sale or distribution of digital blueprints used to print illegal guns.
Bragg, who recently became a co-chair of the national advocacy group Prosecutors Against Gun Violence, said he hopes to take the effort beyond New York and "blanket the marketplace."
"Think of a world where you can't buy a printer that prints a 3D gun," Bragg said during a CityLaw Breakfast event at New York Law School. "We don't then have to do the enforcement cases."
He said some manufacturers have already adopted machine learning tools intended to prevent printers from producing firearms, but argued voluntary compliance is not enough.
"It's one thing for a company to voluntarily engage with us, but if the governor's budget becomes law come April, that's the law of the land," Bragg said.
The push is part of Bragg's broader strategy to disrupt systems that enable gun violence rather than focusing solely on individual offenders. He compared the concept to restrictions on home printers that can prevent the reproduction of counterfeit currency.
Authorities nationwide have warned about the rise of so-called ghost guns, untraceable firearms that lack serial numbers and can be assembled at home from parts or kits, including components produced with 3D printers.
Federal data has shown steep growth in ghost guns recovered in criminal investigations in recent years, with recoveries rising sharply between 2017 and 2023.
New York has already tightened its own rules around unserialized guns and key components, including requirements tied to frames and receivers.
At the federal level, the Supreme Court in March 2025 upheld a Biden-era regulation that treats certain gunmaking kits and unfinished receivers as firearms for purposes of serialization and background checks, a decision supporters say strengthened enforcement against kits commonly used to build ghost guns.
Hochul's new proposal would move further upstream by targeting the equipment and digital files used to produce illegal guns.
Efforts to restrict online firearm blueprints have repeatedly collided with legal fights over whether code and technical files are protected speech, setting up potential constitutional challenges if New York adopts a broad ban on possession or distribution of certain files.
Bragg said his office has increased prosecutions involving plastic guns and components, and he described a case in which teenagers told investigators they learned how to print ghost guns after being directed to instructional videos by YouTube's algorithm while watching "Call of Duty" gameplay.
According to Bragg, YouTube later adjusted its algorithm at his office's request.
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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