Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is once again using fear-driven rhetoric around so-called “ghost guns” to justify a sweeping expansion of state power. This time targeting not just firearms, but technology, digital files, and even ideas themselves.
During a press conference (see below) previewing her 2026 State of the State agenda, Hochul announced a series of proposals aimed at further restricting 3D-printed firearms.
The plan goes far beyond New York’s already aggressive gun laws. And would impose first-in-the-nation mandates on printers, software, manufacturers, and speech.
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According to Hochul, criminals are now replacing the so-called “iron pipeline” with what she dubbed a “plastic pipeline,” allegedly manufacturing firearms in their homes with ease.
She repeatedly framed 3D-printed firearms as an existential threat that could “undo all progress” New York claims to have made on gun violence.
The governor cited data from Everytown for Gun Safety claiming a “1,000 percent increase” in recoveries of 3D-printed firearms in select cities over five years.
Though no context was provided regarding total crime rates, usage in violent crime, or how those numbers compare to traditionally manufactured firearms.
What Hochul Is Proposing
Under Hochul’s plan, New York would:
- Criminalize the sale, distribution, or possession of digital files or instructions used to manufacture 3D-printed firearms or components, unless licensed
- Require all 3D printers sold in New York to include software that detects and blocks the printing of gun parts
- Force gun manufacturers to design pistols so they cannot be modified, including modifications involving illegal conversion devices
- Mandate law enforcement agencies report all recovered 3D-printed firearms to a centralized state database
- Expand criminal penalties and investigative tools, including wiretaps, related to alleged 3D-printing networks
Hochul explicitly warned gun manufacturers they are “on notice.” She accused unnamed companies of prioritizing profit over safety and vowing that New York would force design changes by law.
NRA-ILA: This Isn’t About Crime…
The NRA-ILA sharply criticized the proposals, calling them another example of manufactured panic being used to erode constitutional rights.
Despite Hochul’s repeated claims, privately made firearms are already regulated under federal law, and New York has long banned unserialized and unregistered firearms. Criminals prohibited from owning firearms are prohibited regardless of how a gun is manufactured.
NRA-ILA notes that Hochul’s plan does nothing to explain how layering new restrictions on law-abiding users of technology will stop criminals who already ignore existing laws.
SEE ALSO: Post-COVID Crime Data Debunks Gun Control’s ‘Wild West’ Narrative
What is clear, they argue, is the intent to eliminate private firearm manufacture altogether. Something still legal under federal law and in most states.
More concerning, according to NRA-ILA, is that Hochul’s proposal squarely targets speech and information, raising serious First Amendment issues.
Criminalizing digital files, plans, or instructions opens the door to banning books, videos, blueprints, CAD files, and educational materials. Information that has existed in the public domain for centuries.
A Coordinated Effort
Hochul openly credited Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for helping drive the initiative. Bragg has previously sent threat letters to 3D printer manufacturers, pressured online platforms to remove gun-related content, and urged companies to install gun-blocking software voluntarily. Steps that would become mandatory under Hochul’s proposal.
Advocacy groups including Moms Demand Action were prominently featured at the event, praising New York’s gun laws and calling for similar measures nationwide.
Technology as the Target
At its core, Hochul’s plan does not just regulate firearms. It attempts to regulate outcomes by controlling tools and information. Requiring printers to identify and block shapes, mandating software censorship, and criminalizing digital files represents a significant expansion of prior restraint on lawful activity.
As NRA-ILA put it, suppressing firearm knowledge in the name of public safety is no different than trying to suppress information about fire to stop arson.
As the 2026 legislative session begins in Albany, the formal language of Hochul’s proposals has yet to be released. What is already clear is that New York is preparing another constitutional collision. One that pits state power against both the Second Amendment and the First.
Whether these measures would survive judicial scrutiny is an open question. What is not in doubt is that New York’s war on “ghost guns” is rapidly becoming a war on speech, technology, and lawful ownership itself.
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is a seasoned outdoorsman, lifelong hunter, and the kind of guy who’d rather track whitetails than scroll social media. As an editor for GunsAmerica, he’s got a sharp eye for spotting both solid gear and bad gun laws. Whether he’s deep in the woods or deep in editorial deadlines, Larry brings a no-nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is approach to firearms, hunting, and the great American tradition of self-reliance. If there’s a hot debate on gun rights or the latest in hunting tech, you can bet Larry’s got an opinion—and it’s probably backed up with both facts and field experience.
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Dacain is a troll from anti fun groups. Make sure they/them know that we use facts and critical thinking. Not hyperbole from some professor. If you see the name DACAIN know its bullshit mom’s blah blah blah we dont like guns… blah blah blah. We dont know what a woman is, and anyone in America is automatically able to vote… blah blah blah… lies lies lies.
Governor Kathy sounds just like your annoying, aggravating, irritating, crazy, dimwit, facetious, stupid ex wife.
Why isn’t Kathy at home watching her grandkids?
Hey dacian-
which gun banning group do you work for?
Making up lies, nonsense, all from a incompetent nut case.
Why don’t you crawl back under the rock you came from!
Yes. Please jump on the waggon of dumping off this troll at the nearest bridge.
3d guns are the same threat to the community as Ghost Guns are. They are unvetted weapons used in many crimes because they are not traceable. It’s not rocket science except to the demented and paranoid Far Right who welcome them. Sick.
A PARTIAL LIST OF LUNATICS AND CRIMINALS WHO BUILT GHOST GUNS AND USED THEM IN CRIME OR MASS MURDERS.
Are ghost guns frequently used in violent crime?????????????????????????
Yes, ghost guns are increasing being used in shootings across the country.
In July 2020, an individual who was prohibited from possessing guns allegedly murdered two people in Pennsylvania using a homemade 9mm handgun.9
In November 2019, a 16-year-old shot five of his classmates at Saugus High School in California—two of them fatally—using a homemade handgun, before fatally shooting himself.10
In August 2019, a shooter used a homemade gun kit to build a .223-caliber firearm that he later used to fire 41 shots in 32 seconds in a bar in Dayton, Ohio, shooting 26 people and killing nine.11
In 2017, in Northern California, a man prohibited from possessing firearms ordered kits to build AR-15-style rifles. On November 13, he initiated a series of shootings that began with fatally shooting his wife at home, followed by a rampage the next day during which he fired at multiple people in several different locations, including an elementary school, killing five people and injuring dozens more.12
In 2013, a shooter opened fire in Santa Monica, California, shooting 100 rounds, killing five people, and injuring several others at a community college using a homemade AR-15 rifle. Reporting indicates the shooter had previously tried to purchase a firearm from a licensed gun dealer and failed a background check, potentially indicating why he opted to order parts to build a gun instead.13
Law enforcement officials around the country are sounding the alarm about the dramatic increase in the recovery of ghost guns at crime scenes in their communities. ATF reported that approximately 10,000 ghost guns were recovered across the country in 2019.14 Ghost guns have also been illegally trafficked to Mexico.15 In addition:
In 2019, Washington, D.C., police recovered 115 ghost guns, a 360 percent increase from 2018, when they recovered 25 ghost guns, and a 3,733 percent increase from 2017, when only three such firearms were recovered.16
In 2019, ATF reported recovering 117 ghost guns in Maryland with almost 25 percent recovered from Baltimore alone. Ghost gun recoveries in the state then tripled in 2020.17
According to law enforcement in Philadelphia, ghost gun recoveries in that city rose 152 percent from 2019 to 2020.18
The special agent in charge of the ATF Los Angeles Field Division reported in January 2021 that 41 percent of the division’s cases involve ghost guns, and a May 2019 statewide analysis in California found that 30 percent of all guns recovered in connection with a crime in the state did not have serial numbers.19
In addition, an investigation by The Trace found that ghost guns are increasingly becoming the weapon of choice for violent white supremacists and anti-government extremists.20
In conclusion the ATF is a law unto itself and as in the past it rules at 8:00 AM and it is then a new “regulation” (disingenuous term for new law) is now the law of the land at 5:00 PM.
No Judge Conservative or Liberal will declare the ATF ruling illegal or Unconstitutional because ghost guns are a danger to the people of the country and even the much ballyhooed Scalia decision with the usual double talk and smoke and mirrors declared “The Courts had the right to regulate firearms” (slick disingenuous term for ban or restrict firearms).
In conclusion your right to own a weapon rests with the rulings of the courts, not the Constitution, and history has proven this reality like it or not.
No sane person would want ghost guns legal and no other civilized nation tolerates them.
3d guns are a threat to the entire community. Criminals and nut cases more and more are using them in crime. It mirrors what has already happened with the Ghost Gun kits that were formerly being sold with no serial numbers and without going through a Federal background check.
The Feds moved against the Ghost Gun kits when crime soared because of them and the weapons that were used were Ghost guns. Now the 3d guns pose the same threat.
Remember this when you allow criminals and lunatics to get firearms and they commit sensational mass murders this is what causes the cry for total gun bans. Being paranoid and not supporting sane gun legislation only guarantees that someday you will lose everything. It reminds me of the Far Right Stupidity and stinginess not wanting to pay a few more pennies in taxes to support a National Health Care Bill and then going bankrupt over your healthcare costs when you need catastrophic health care and then cannot afford it.
Hochul’s plan makes perfect sense.
Prior to the 3D guns, the Ghost Guns have enabled homicides and robberies to soar in all of the States that is why the Feds cracked down on mail order sales of partially finished frames without serial numbers mandating they now must have serial numbers and be sold through an F.F.L. dealers.
Now the 3D weapons have taken the place of the unserialized kits and are being used in homicides and murders.
A PARTIAL LIST OF LUNATICS AND CRIMINALS WHO BUILT GHOST GUNS AND USED THEM IN CRIME OR MASS MURDERS.
Are ghost guns frequently used in violent crime?????????????????????????
Yes, ghost guns are increasing being used in shootings across the country.
In July 2020, an individual who was prohibited from possessing guns allegedly murdered two people in Pennsylvania using a homemade 9mm handgun.9
In November 2019, a 16-year-old shot five of his classmates at Saugus High School in California—two of them fatally—using a homemade handgun, before fatally shooting himself.10
In August 2019, a shooter used a homemade gun kit to build a .223-caliber firearm that he later used to fire 41 shots in 32 seconds in a bar in Dayton, Ohio, shooting 26 people and killing nine.11
In 2017, in Northern California, a man prohibited from possessing firearms ordered kits to build AR-15-style rifles. On November 13, he initiated a series of shootings that began with fatally shooting his wife at home, followed by a rampage the next day during which he fired at multiple people in several different locations, including an elementary school, killing five people and injuring dozens more.12
In 2013, a shooter opened fire in Santa Monica, California, shooting 100 rounds, killing five people, and injuring several others at a community college using a homemade AR-15 rifle. Reporting indicates the shooter had previously tried to purchase a firearm from a licensed gun dealer and failed a background check, potentially indicating why he opted to order parts to build a gun instead.13
Law enforcement officials around the country are sounding the alarm about the dramatic increase in the recovery of ghost guns at crime scenes in their communities. ATF reported that approximately 10,000 ghost guns were recovered across the country in 2019.14 Ghost guns have also been illegally trafficked to Mexico.15 In addition:
In 2019, Washington, D.C., police recovered 115 ghost guns, a 360 percent increase from 2018, when they recovered 25 ghost guns, and a 3,733 percent increase from 2017, when only three such firearms were recovered.16
In 2019, ATF reported recovering 117 ghost guns in Maryland with almost 25 percent recovered from Baltimore alone. Ghost gun recoveries in the state then tripled in 2020.17
According to law enforcement in Philadelphia, ghost gun recoveries in that city rose 152 percent from 2019 to 2020.18
The special agent in charge of the ATF Los Angeles Field Division reported in January 2021 that 41 percent of the division’s cases involve ghost guns, and a May 2019 statewide analysis in California found that 30 percent of all guns recovered in connection with a crime in the state did not have serial numbers.19
In addition, an investigation by The Trace found that ghost guns are increasingly becoming the weapon of choice for violent white supremacists and anti-government extremists.20
In conclusion the ATF is a law unto itself and as in the past it rules at 8:00 AM and it is then a new “regulation” (disingenuous term for new law) is now the law of the land at 5:00 PM.
No Judge Conservative or Liberal will declare the ATF ruling illegal or Unconstitutional because ghost guns are a danger to the people of the country and even the much ballyhooed Scalia decision with the usual double talk and smoke and mirrors declared “The Courts had the right to regulate firearms” (slick disingenuous term for ban or restrict firearms).
In conclusion your right to own a weapon rests with the rulings of the courts, not the Constitution, and history has proven this reality like it or not.
No sane person would want ghost guns legal and no other civilized nation tolerates them.
the key word in this is “CRIMINALS” start punishing them instead catch and release!!!
Arresting Criminals is “after the fact” and it makes about as much sense as taking poison and then reading the label on the container it came in.
The U.S. now has more people incarcerated than China, Russia, and North Korea combined, Even a 5th grader would realize that this is not working.
What does work is keeping guns out of the hands of criminals and lunatics something the paranoid Far Right will never support because it involves sane gun legislation.
The Far Rights paranoia view every gun law as a threat to their owning a weapon yet Europe had tough gun laws and Europe is awash in guns. In the U.S. machine guns and silencers have been registered since 1933 and none have been confiscated something the Far Right conveniently sweeps under the rug and totally ignores with the simple wave of the hand i.e. “Do not confuse me with the facts my paranoia will not hear of it”.
great more AI crap getting slung around………your anti-gun slant is questionable at best.
remember pink ammo goes into a purple gun not purple ammo in a pink gun…….
See my response to him about the new California storage law.
Thank you for your service
You dont know what a woman is. How do you know anything about firearms. I call b.s.
Troll. Go away. Youre not welcome here.
we don’t need to fight among ourselves.