Spiking the ghost gun: How Singapore can foil 3D-printed firearms

Extremists worldwide are eyeing 3D-printed guns. Singapore, however, has a secret weapon up its sleeve to tackle them.

- Gareth Tan

In March, the Internal Security Department (ISD) issued a detention order under the Internal Security Act (ISA) on a 17-year-old Singaporean male who had become influenced by far-right extremist ideologies, and was actively preparing to conduct attacks against Muslims at mosques in Singapore.

He was an associate of 18-year-old Nick Lee Xing Qiu, whom the ISD detained under the ISA in December 2024. The 17-year-old is the fourth young Singaporean to be dealt with under the ISA since December 2020 for subscribing to far-right extremist ideologies.

One remarkable aspect of the latest case involves the teen's efforts to secure a firearm for the planned attack. The 17-year-old made several unsuccessful attempts to acquire it from sources in Malaysia, the US and Thailand.

Stymied by the barriers to importing guns and gun parts into Singapore, he was advised to explore the option of 3D printing these parts, as well as ammunition. Thankfully, despite investigating the possibility, he was thwarted by issues of cost and technical feasibility.

The worrying part, however, is that 3D-printed firearms (3DPF) are increasingly being used for violence and crime worldwide. So it is important that we pay closer attention to the technology, its trajectory and how it might affect us in the future.

This is partly because it has been documented that the ideologies of some far-right communities and the 3DPF community overlap significantly.

As more cases of far-right extremism emerge in Singapore, it stands to reason that radicalised individuals will naturally gravitate towards methods and information available on their networks - just as the 17-year-old detainee did in his search for weapons.

An equally important factor is that Singapore is a regional leader in the use of 3D printing, with local companies now accounting for 40 per cent of the Asean market, which is expected to grow to US$100 billion (S$132 billion) in 2025.