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Man sells dozens of 3D-printed guns at Houston's 1st gun buyback

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The man, who wished to remain anonymous, said he wanted to "send [Houston leaders] a message" about the city using taxpayer money for programs aimed at curbing gun violence.

A man who wished to remain unidentified sold a heap of 3D-printed guns to the city during its first gun buyback event on Saturday.
@IamMaryBenton / Twitter

A Houston man on Saturday sold dozens of homemade 3-D printed guns to the city at its first-ever gun buyback event, Fox 26's Matthew Seedorff reported.

The man, who chose to remain anonymous, told Fox 26 that "the goal was not personal profit, but to send [Houston leaders] a message about spending $1 million tax dollars on something that has no evidence of any effect on crime."

The man traded in 62 3D-printed guns, often referred to as 'ghost guns,' and received $50 per gun. He claimed making the weapons only cost $3 each, he told Fox 26. The large trade-in of non-traditionally-crafted firearms has prompted city officials to change guidance for future buybacks.

"We’re going to exclude those next time around," Mayor Sylvester Turner said to Fox 26. "This is a program designed for people who want to voluntarily relinquish their guns."

"You’ll always have people who will try and take advantage of the programs," Turner added. "I was there when that person brought in those guns. The reason we went ahead and did that was we had not said we weren’t going to."

We have all seen the photo of ghost guns someone took to the gun buyback event to exchange for gift cards this past Saturday. Mayor @SylvesterTurner told https://t.co/b0gszPA8vI and ABC 13 today that those guns will not be accepted at the next event. pic.twitter.com/0VtirWXfNS
— Mary Benton (@IAmMaryBenton) August 1, 2022

Officials from the mayor's office said the city collected more than 840 guns and gave participants $50, $100, $150, and $200 Visa gift cards, depending on the gun type: $50 for broken guns, $100 for shotguns and rifles, $150 for handguns, and $200 for automatic weapons.

The buyback event is part of Mayor Turner's sweeping anti-crime initiative "One Safe Houston." The program has $53 million in federal dollars to carry out a number of different initiatives designed to reduce violent crime across the city; Mayor Turner said $1 million of those federal dollars are earmarked for gun buyback events like Saturday's, according to Fox 26.

Despite the anonymous man's apparent gaming of the initiative, Mayor Turner called Saturday's buyback a success. City officials have at least two more buyback planned in the near future, the Mayor told Fox 26.