The Untraceable 'Ghost Gun' You Can Make Legally at Home

Click on the audio player above to hear this interview.

For $1,500, and a little bit of time and tech savvy, anyone can make a fully functional and completely untraceable AR-15 right in their home. Sold by the gun advocacy group Defense Distributed, the Ghost Gunner is a computer-numerical-controlled (CNC) mill that creates 3-D-printed gun components.

There has long been a movement of do-it-yourself gunsmithing—building the body of an AR-15 and then buying the other components elsewhere to create weapons that are neither registered with the federal government or can be traced back to users.

But Defense Distributed takes it one step further, eliminating the manual construction of the body, and making it as easy as possible for consumers, through computer software, to build a gun that has no serial number and is virtually untraceable. In fact, the company collects as little information as necessary from consumers and destroys that information after the purchase.

Andy Greenberg, senior writer for Wired, used the Ghost Gunner CNC mill to build his own AR-15 in the San Francisco offices of Wired.  

"From my first moments using the Ghost Gunner, it was clear: This is a machine designed to make a gun," Greenberg writes for Wired.

We also speak with Cody Wilson, founder of Defense Distributed. Click on the audio player above to hear Greenberg, and to hear Wilson explain his company's mission in the larger gun policy debate. 

All the components of Greenberg's AR-15, including his homemade lower receiver, the gleaming aluminum piece.

(JOSH VALCARCEL/WIRED)

The drill press, jigs and vise Greenberg used in his first attempt to finish an 80 percent lower receiver.

(JOSH VALCARCEL/WIRED)

A 3-D printed lower receiver on the print bed of a Makerbot Replicator.

(JOSH VALCARCEL/WIRED)

Greenberg firing the AR-15 he made.

(JOSH VALCARCEL/WIRED)