ALBANY — In her latest bid to quell the tide of 3D-printed ghost guns in New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul has proposed regulations on the printing machines themselves. But whether any regulation could deter the illicit production of the weapons remains a matter of debate.
Since the start of the decade, law enforcement officials across the state have seen a rise in unlicensed, homemade firearms, also known as “ghost guns,” especially in cases involving shootings or weapons trafficking. Often made using 3D printers, these guns have proven to be hard to track and relatively easy and cheap to produce.
In an incident last year in Albany, State Police charged a man with having 35 different firearms, both handguns and assault rifles, as well as hundreds of different firearms parts, all made using 3D printing…