Last year American company Defense Distributed introduced the first 3D printed firearm. Now an Aalborg-based company, Create it REAL, has created software that can recognise digital gun parts and block 3D printers from printing them.

Defense Distributed, which operates out of Texas, claims on its website to have created the 3D gun for the stated purpose of defending the “civil liberty of popular access to arms” as stated in the US Constitution. The blueprints for the gun, called Liberator, where freely accessible form the company's website until the US State Department ordered the company to remove them. 

Since then legislators in California and New York have proposed bans on 3D printed firearms and US Department of Homeland Security has warned of its dangers. 

Create it REAL, which creates 3D printer solutions, created software that would allow printers to recognise gun parts and then block the machines from printing them out. The company was moved to create the software after seeing the dangers posed by the 3D guns. 

“The Australian police made a video where they highlighted the dangers of these weapons,” said Create it REAL's CEO, Jeremie Pierre Gay, referring to a video released last May by the New South Wales Police Force. “The video showed that not only can you shoot with them, but they can also explode and therefore be very dangerous for consumers.”  

According to Gay, the creation of 3D printed guns leaves many questions unanswered. 

“The idea behind the software was that we don’t know who is responsible when these guns cause harm – is it the manufacturer or the printer?” Gay said, adding that manufacturers can safeguard themselves against the burden of responsibility for the weapons by including the Create it REAL software on their printers. 

But helping manufacturers is not the only reason for the software. Gay also sees it as a level of parental control. 

“With this block, parents can buy 3D printers without worrying about the potential harm that could happen to their kids.”