A Texas man who illegally 3D-printed his own AR-15 has been sentenced to eight years in prison.
Eric Gerard McGinnis learned his fate on Wednesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. McGinnis was arrested in July 2017 outside of Dallas while he was test-firing the gun in a wooded area. Officers found him with a “hit list” of lawmakers he was thought to be planning to harm with the weapon, NPR reports.
The list was titled “9/11/2001 list of American Terrorists” and included bird Republican and Democratic members of Congress. The list also contained those individual’s home and office addresses.
In August of 2018, a federal judge made it illegal for people to post blueprints for 3D printed guns online.
While it’s not illegal to 3D print a gun, McGinnis had been under a protective order since 2015 due to a “violent altercation” with his girlfriend. At the time of his arrest, he was barred from owning a gun or ammunition. McGinnis had actually attempted to purchase a firearm in 2016 and was refused.
Rifle parts can be purchased by anyone without a background check. McGinnis had used a combination of purchased and 3D-printed parts to build a gun from scratch. He was able to acquire a barrel, stock, upper receiver, and grip despite the protective order. The only piece he needed to print was the gun’s firing mechanism.
