AUSTIN — A Texas manufacturing company’s technological innovation turned tragic on Tuesday when a 3D printer jammed while printing a metal pistol, killing two technicians and injuring an intern.
Solid Concepts, which yesterday boasted it had successfully fired over 50 rounds from the first ever firearm made of 3D-printed metal, issued a statement on the company’s blog announcing that it would temporarily halt operations in order to carry out a “thorough investigation into the deadly malfunction.”
According to the statement, product engineers Brett Lackey and Jacob Harlan—both employed at the company since 2011—died of multiple gunshot wounds after they “mishandled the machinery” while troubleshooting a malfunction. A third man, identified only as an intern, was treated and released at a local hospital after sustaining a bullet wound to the thigh.
“All Solid Concepts employees are thoroughly trained and follow established protocol when dealing with potentially dangerous machinery,” read the statement.
“However, anybody who has ever dealt with a printer jam knows that frustration can take over and lead to poor choices. A 3D printer jam is no different, except that the results can be deadly. When something goes wrong, it’s more than just ink stains and torn paper.”
Solid Concepts uses a direct metal laser sintering machine—with a price tag of about $850,000—to produce each pistol, which is aversion of an M1911, a handgun designed by John Browning and first used widely near the end of the Philippine-American War.
Authorities say that there is no evidence that would lead to a criminal investigation, but the deadly incident is sure to draw the ire of politicians and law enforcement officials who already warned that 3D-printed firearms will only add to America’s epidemic of gun violence.
“We don’t suspect any foul play at Solid Concepts,” said Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo.
“Unless, like many people, you consider trying to create a deadly weapon out of thin air as foul play, but it’s not the Austin Police Department’s role to make those kinds of decisions.”
57 comments
as someone familiar with guns and 3d printing this story makes absolutely no sense to me.
1. while being printed a gun would be just as harmless as any other piece being manufactured
2. referring back to number 1, It would be impossible for a gun to even be loaded let alone fire while being 3d printed
3. A catastrophic malfunction with the 3d Printer causing an explosion (im not sure WHAT that would possibly be) would have nothing to do with the object being printed.
4. the report of “multiple gunshot wounds” DOES NOT sound like an equipment malfunction at all, it sounds like someone blatantly disregarding one or more of the 4 firearm safety rules, which while possible, I would not expect to happen at such a company as solid concepts
What is the point of these so called news satire sites? They are not funny. It just spreads rumors and false information.
is there any chance this printer could print what the fox says?
Holy shit, what a bunch of morons. You people need to get a freaking life. For those that can’t see at first glance that this is satire, go back to bed. To those that think this in any way promotes the anti gun nutjobs, go back to bed. It is pure and simple satire. Nothing more, nothing less. Sorry it was lost on you, dumbass’s.
This story is complete BS, anyone who knows anything about 3D printing of any kind can see right through this….
Can I assume it’s a polycarbonate jam?
Satire or not, some liberal will latch onto this story and start spreading it around the globe as the gospel and basis for full gun registration and licensing. My money is on Feinstein and the “Mothers” that are already spreading the false and libelous rumor that four of their members were “intimidated” by Texas Open Carry. Wait and see.
It’s not satire, that would require the element of humor or wit.
Satire, folks. It’s satire. The company is real, the story isn’t.
Dang… curiosity got the best of me. Story is complete satire. – This crap is unacceptable and does nothing more than fuel the anti-gun agenda and adds the hoards of misinformation surrounding guns and fuels people’s ignorance. – Thanks for being doucebags, Newslo.com. Really.
I like the story and really hope it gets picked up by the antigunners in the media just to show how damn stupid they are for believing it.
I was sent this link by someone and have to admit, at first, i fell right into it, then it dawned on me. How do you print metal, or gun powder? Or frankly, print bullets or a loaded gun? I know it is satirical, but I believe it is totally predictive or exploratory at least of a future of 3D printing. I will keep my sci fi hat on and dig it.
Y’all realize that there is less than 20% of this article that is factual, right? See the “Show Facts” / “Hide Facts” buttons? Try it for yourselves. This is utter bull crap.
Why on earth is this necessary???
Tech geeks, please don’t pretend like everybody is supposed to know exactly how 3d printing works. Yesterday was the first time I heard of printing a gun, which sounded like a joke at first. This is pretty new technology and, as we can see from the responses here, it’s not much of a logical stretch from ‘gun printer’ to ‘gun printing accident’, especially when the article just isn’t very funny. Contrary to one comment I’ve seen here, satire’s success doesn’t derive from fooling the audience. That would be a ‘practical joke’.
I’m a bit confused…the article makes no sense. If these people were fixing a printer malfunction,how did they die of gunshot wounds. If they were printing guns, they weren’t printing bullets in them
IF ITS ON THE INTERNET ITS TURE
Sean Boswell, some 3D printers do have the technology to work with metals… If you follow your own advice and press the show facts button on this site, it will indeed show that fact.
When printers are outlawed, only outlaws will have printers.
I call BULLSHIT!
Why were bullets in the printer????? WTF????
21fst century satire!
I think this article misses the point of satire. You have to make it more ridiculous and at least a little bit funny or tongue-in-cheek.. this is just sad.. and lame. Go read the Onion or the Daily Mash, they know what satire is. And, PS, a defect in a 3D printed gun could actually kill someone.. obviously, not WHILE they’re making it, but after it’s loaded, it could misfire or backfire..
Yeah they aren’t much further from the truth than fox. Remember the windmills kill birds thing. Or dick Cheney talking about gun safety? If that’s not satire what is it?
They were printing a loaded gun?? I call bullshit. First the pistol is made (printed) in pieces.. second it is not printed with bullets… this article is so dumb I don’t know what to say.
This story makes no sense. Where were the bullets? Why would they be IN a gun being created? They are a separate item. Is this story a hoax or satire?
How can a jam in printing the weapon have a loaded round? More to this story.
They should have printed an unloaded gun… What a crock of sh!t. If you believe this, you’ll believe a tornado in a wrecking yard can produce a running and driving Corvette. The “printer” makes parts, not a complete functioning weapon, or any other machine of any type.
Sounds bogus. Why would anyone print a 3-D gun with bullets?
the story is fake that photo is from a car crash
Terrible attempt at satire, the Onion it is not. But anyway…. BENGHAZI!!
Now, Lets sit back and watch how many people think this is a true story THEN, lets watch the retarded anti-gun crazies rejoice in it..LOL
this is a fake story Solid concepts blog has nothing about this or on their facebook page that they updated a few times today even …great job at fear mongering i hope you guys get sued
Sounds like someone had ammo where there was no need of or reason for ammo to be. Gunshots are not accidental someone screwed up.
Sufficiently disguised satire is hardly distinguishable from reality. For average person to understand that this is satire – leave aside have a laugh about it – s/he would need to know at least a little about 3d printing.
Someone should sue this web site. Not for the stupid fake story. But for the image of a supposedly dead person. This is Yellow Journalism at its finest and most dangerous!
It’s also libelous to quote a person as a Police Chief of Austin that isn’t really a true person in a printed article.
I’d like a job….. I can write crazy, bs stories too 🙂
Tia is total BS I too use 3d printers and firearms. This has to be fake or totally misreported
I am calling BS on this. I am very aware of what happens in Austin as I work with LE daily
Total bullshit! Called the company, they never heard of this incident.
OMG!! Do some of you actually vote??!!!
I live in Austin, it’s BS pure and clear.
Paragraph 1 an 3 contradict each other
You print them with the bullets already in them?
???? Uh huh
to bad it may be a joke
Um i know because i have done my research about this 3d printer for my bussiness that thats def. not what happen the machine makes the gun most of the time piece by piece and does not load a gun while making it so theres another side to this story or the two men who made it was doing something they shouldnt have done by manufactoring bullets in the gun while being made i dont really know how to explain it but i do know they need to look into this cause thats almost impossible i could sit here and explain how better but it would take 4 pages of detail facts . Im sorry these men lost there lives but i dont think that how they said it happen is the truth incase they were doing something that is new to 3d printers where you can manufactor the whole gun as one and somehow put bullets inside or program it to but from what my machine does thats impossible the government has been trying to band this product and this sounds more along the lines of them using it to try to make that happen there are alot of good from these machines that could develop a whole new world other than making guns with it further more they need to look more into this so those men can get the proper justice sounds more like someone set that up to happen cause i know these machines and i cant see how thats even possible if you know anything about these you will also know that hy angle pieces of parts and ecuations this is some kind of set up sorry for the victims but there families need to look into this
I know this is parody. I liked the last paragraph, creating a deadly weapon out of thin air.
Yeah because there is serious voodoo going on in the normal casting, forging, or machining processes. Lol. You know you can make your own AR15 worth a drill press and a jig? You can also make a mariana pipe out of a carrot or an apple.
if they were shot it wasn’t because of a printer jam . why cant these people tell the real story and not fabricate a story to sell a load of crap . this is whats wrong with this country now articles like this one feeding the weak minded idiots thet buy this crap .
Anyone else see the connection? Obama doesn’t want guns – the people who found a way around that somehow die from “multiple gunshot wounds” that occured during a printing jam????
Did they print the bullet the the chamber around the bullet. You can only make components not a complete functioning weapon with bullets an no assembly required. This is the dumbest story I’ve ever heard.
Click the “Show Facts” button below the story. Complete fiction that some idiots are going to spread like wildfire as true. This story along with this site is trash!
So what happens when newslo.com is sued for slander and libel?
What???
WTF?
Good thing he wasn’t scanning his ass at the time.