PASADENA, Md. — When Luigi Mangione was arrested at a McDonald's in Altoona, he was armed with a weapon that's increasingly causing concern among law enforcement agencies across the country.
"He was in possession of a ghost gun, that had the capability of firing a 9mm round,” NYPD Chief Joseph Kenny said at Monday’s press conference announcing the arrest.
Police believe both the gun and silencer found on Mangione were 3D printed. The gun was "consistent with the weapon used in the murder," NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said on Monday, but it's currently undergoing ballistics testing to confirm.
They're called ghost guns because they are untraceable; there's no serial number. Other than that, there's not much of a difference between a 3D printed gun and a regular one.
"Look at it, feel it, it's plastic,” Frank Loane at Pasadena Pawn & Gun said as he showed us a 3D printed receiver. “It's no big deal to print them out."
Police couldn’t say whether Mangione purchased the 3D printed receiver or made it himself, but Loane says it’d be pretty easy either way.
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"You can go online and just order these 80 percenters and they send them right to your house," he told WMAR-2 News.
An 80 percenter is industry slang for an unfinished receiver or frame. When they're printed out, they aren't technically a firearm yet.
"The rest of the parts you can buy, all the inside parts, the slide, the barrels. It's all online for sale. Anybody can order it," Loane said.
As for the 3D printed silencer, that’s far less common. Loane says he’s never seen that before.
"But a machine shop can make these out of a piece of pipe. It's not that hard, it's just a round cylinder, a piece of pipe."
Loane says he got the 3D printed receivers that he showed us after helping clean out a customer's home when their spouse died. But he has no interest in having them in his shop.
"I'd be in big trouble selling stuff without serial numbers. That's why I don't even want them here. People come in sometimes, they want to pawn something. I say, I don't want nothing to do with it. Take it with you. Don't even leave it here."
Baltimore City has had its fair share of problems with ghost guns. In February, the city settled a lawsuit against Polymer80, a national gun manufacturer that sells kits containing firearms parts.
Below are the latest numbers from Baltimore Police on how many ghost guns the department recovered each year. These numbers include all guns that lack a serial number, not just 3D printed guns.
2018 – 12
2019 – 48
2020 – 143
2021 – 347
2022 – 516
2023 (Year End)– 387
2023 (YTD as of 12/07/23) – 357
2024 (YTD as of 12/07/24) – 292
