PORTLAND — HP Inc. says it won’t allow people to use its 3D printers to manufacture guns, unless they are a licensed firearms manufacturer and are making guns that can be detected by airport security.
But the company’s stance is unlikely to have significant impact on the supply of homemade guns. That’s because HP’s 3D printers are primarily for the commercial market, not hobbyists. And printing experts say determined people could probably find their way around HP’s restrictions.
Gun safety advocates have worried for years that people could use 3D printers to produce “ghost guns,” which are untraceable and not subject to legal restrictions over gun ownership. The printers could also use plastic or other materials to make guns that don’t set off metal detectors and other security.
In the fall, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan led more than 30 other mayors — including Portland’s Ted Wheeler — in calling on 3D printer manufacturers to prevent their products from making the unregulated firearms.
HP chief executive Dion Weisler responded that his company won’t allow its printers to be used that way.
“HP is against ‘ghost guns’ being produced on our 3D printers,” Weisler wrote in the November letter, obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive.
It’s unclear whether other printer manufacturers responded to the Seattle mayor’s call. Her office did not respond to an inquiry seeking comment.
HP has a new “responsible use” policy, according to Weisler, which precludes its printers from being used to make guns unless the manufacturer is licensed and regulated, the firearms are detectable by security screeners, and the firearms are traceable.
Though HP’s headquarters are in Silicon Valley, the company has advanced 3D printer research in Corvallis, Ore., and in Vancouver.
HP’s letter did not explain how it would stop people from using its printers to make guns and did not respond to an inquiry seeking details. Other companies have installed software to stop their printers from making guns, a step printing experts have previously decried as ineffective.
Dogan Yirmibesoglu, an Oregon State University researcher studying 3D printers, agreed that HP’s stance won’t thwart people who want to print their own guns.
Companies might install software that identifies known gun schematics and prevents printers from manufacturing them. But Yirmibesoglu said it’s easy to get around that by modifying a gun’s blueprints so the printer doesn’t recognize it as a weapon.
“With small changes you can probably trick it, and the printer will think, ‘Oh, then it’s OK,’ ” he said.
Though HP’s 3D printers are expensive — they range from $50,000 to $300,000 — and are meant for commercial use, cheaper printers are readily available. And Yirmibesoglu said some run on open-source software that can be readily modified to print anything.
Last summer, a federal judge in Seattle banned the distribution of 3D gun blueprints online. However, a Texas entrepreneur began mailing gun blueprints instead.
Sill, Yirmibesoglu said restricting gun blueprints online might be the most effective way of limiting 3D gun production — even if that doesn’t totally prevent the practice.
“It’s a problematic issue,” he said. “But if there’s no blueprints of the weapons online, out there for free, nobody can print those unless they’re gun specialists.”
