A man in New York made $21,000 through the Democrats’ gun buyback program by 3D printing over 100 lower receivers and turning them over to the police, according to reports.
“I 3D-printed a bunch of lower receivers and frames for different kinds of firearms,” said the man who identified himself only as Kem.
Kem said he printed the gun parts using a $200 3D printer he received as a gift for Christmas and then drove six hours to Utica, where the Utica Police Department was hosting a gun buyback program for the New York State Attorney General’s Office.
“And he sees the tote and says, ‘how many firearms do you have?’ And I said, ‘110,’” he said.
For the rest of the afternoon, Kem negotiated with the Attorney General’s staff over how much the payment for the 3D-printed parts would be.
“And it ended with the guy and a lady from the budget office finally coming around with the 42 gift cards and counting them in front of me,” he said. “$21,000 in $500 gift cards.”
A spokesperson for Attorney General Letitia James released a statement on Wednesday, saying: “It’s shameful that this individual exploited a program that has successfully taken thousands of guns off the streets to protect our communities from gun violence.”
“We have partnered with local police throughout the state to recover more than 3,500 guns, and one individual’s greedy behavior won’t tarnish our work to promote public safety”, the spokesperson continued. “We have adjusted our policies to ensure that no one can exploit this program again for personal gain.”
Meanwhile, Kem laughed off claims that the gun buyback program was a big success, arguing such programs do nothing to reduce crime.
“I’m sure handing over $21,000 in gift cards to some punk kid after getting a bunch of plastic junk was a rousing success,” Kem said. “Gun buybacks are a fantastic way of showing, number one, that your policies don’t work, and, number 2, you’re creating perverse demand. You’re causing people to show up to these events, and, they don’t actually reduce crime whatsoever,” he said.
