Police jump the gun after 3D printer raid

Owner of supposed 3D printed 'gun' claims they are actually parts of a printer

Shop owner 'Andrew' holds parts of what police initially thought was a 3D printed gun, however he claims they are parts of his printer (PA)

It made for a shocking headline - the first case of suspected criminals using a 3D printer to make their own gun.

But the breathless claims made by Greater Manchester Police on Thursday night were cast into doubt today - after it emerged that the two "gun parts" discovered by officers may actually have been parts of the 3D printer itself.

The MakerBot Replicator 2 printer was seized during a raid on a workshop in Baguley, Greater Manchester on Thursday as part of an operation targeting organised crime.

A Sky News crew happened to be on the raid, and within hours the story was running hard, with GMP hailing the two items - which appeared to be a trigger and gun magazine - as a "really significant discovery".

But it was quickly pointed out that the items bore an uncanny resemblance to entirely legal spare printer parts - a filament spool holder and part of a spring-loaded drive block.

Then the toyshopkeeper whose workshop had been raided issued a tearful denial claiming the items were parts of the printer which he uses to make models.

The 38-year-old man, who wanted to be known only as Andrew, described how 30 officers swarmed over his premises where the printer was kept in full views on his workbench where it was employed to make everything from cake decorations to trinkets.

A member of Rivington Air Arms gun club in Bolton, he said he only found out he was suspected of producing a firearm when he saw the news after being released on bail.

"I'm not making anything illegal. I can understand them doing their jobs. I just think they have gone over the top. To do an investigation, fine. To label them as gun parts is absolutely ridiculous," he said.

Police later issued a statement clarifying their position but insisted they were acting on legitimate intelligence and had been issued with a warrant by a magistrate. It is understand a suspected blueprint of a printable gun was recovered from a computer at the scene. Two air weapons and a supply of chemicals were also seized.

Assistant Chief Constable Steve Heywood said the force had acted in the public interest and warned anyone who attempted to make a 3D printed firearm or components for it faced a mandatory five year jail term.

"We need to be absolutely clear that, at this stage, we cannot categorically say we have recovered the component parts for a 3D gun. What we have seized are items that need further forensic testing by national ballistics experts to establish whether they can be used in the construction of a genuine, viable firearm," he said.

Three-dimensional printers can be legally bought on the internet for as little as £700. It is not illegal to download one of the blueprints which are readily available on the web.

Deputy Chief Constable Dave Thompson, the senior officer responsible nationally for gangs and gun crime, said the technology around 3D guns remained rudimentary but downloadable plans were all over the internet. The type of weapon printed at the moment is an incredibly primitive weapon, probably more dangerous to the user than anyone it's fired at."

A US libertarian group, Defense Distributed, has uploaded a programme to make a gun - the Liberator pistol - to the Internet. In a video on its website, it shows the pistol being fired. "Watch the video. Spread the word," it says.