News · Firearms
3D-printed firearms and digital blueprints in NSW.
The AFP and Victoria Police charged a man yesterday after seizing seven FGC-9 firearms, two of them fully assembled, from two houses south-east of Melbourne. The gun in that seizure is the story the reporting tells. The file that made it is the story the law is more interested in. In NSW, possessing that file carries 14 years.
By Aaron Kernaghan · Published 18 July 2026
The news, in summary.
On 16 July 2026 the Victorian Joint Organised Crime Taskforce, made up of the AFP, Victoria Police and the Australian Border Force, executed search warrants at Clyde North and Narre Warren as part of Operation Yalong. The AFP says officers seized two fully assembled FGC-9 firearms, five partially assembled ones, ammunition, seven magazines, three pill press machines, knuckle dusters, and components said to have been used to make weapons. A 34-year-old man was charged and appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on 17 July.
That matter is before a Victorian court and the man charged is presumed innocent. What follows is about the law, not the person.
The charge list is worth reading for what is on it and what is not. Manufacturing a handgun without a licence. Possessing a traffickable quantity of firearms. Possessing a prohibited weapon. Drug offences. And one count under section 3LA of the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth) for refusing to comply with an order to open a device, which we wrote about yesterday in its NSW form. There is no charge for possessing the digital files. In Victoria there is no such offence to charge. In NSW there is, and it is the most serious firearms charge most people have never heard of.
Are 3D printed guns illegal in Australia?
Yes, and on more than one basis. A 3D-printed gun is a firearm. Nothing in the Firearms Act 1996 (NSW) turns on how a firearm was made, so every offence that applies to a factory gun applies to a printed one. Possessing it without a licence is an offence under section 7 or section 7A. It will not be registered, so section 36 applies as well, with a maximum of 14 years where the firearm is a prohibited firearm or a pistol. A home-built semi-automatic will usually be one or the other.
What differs across Australia is the file. NSW and Tasmania made possession of a digital blueprint a crime years ago. Most other jurisdictions still have not, which is why a national seizure of printed guns produces very different charge sheets depending on which side of a border the printer sat on.
What is an FGC-9?
The FGC-9 is a semi-automatic carbine designed to be built at home. The point of the design is that it uses no regulated gun parts at all. The frame is printed. The rest comes from hardware shops and online orders that are lawful to place. The build manual ran to almost 200 pages and was published online in 2020 under a pseudonym.
That design choice is what makes the file the pressure point. No serial number, no dealer record, no registration entry, and no controlled component whose purchase raises a flag. Australian firearms law was built on the assumption that guns enter the country or come out of a factory, and that both can be counted. A gun that is a download plus a weekend defeats that architecture. Section 51F is Parliament's answer. If the gun cannot be controlled at the point of supply, control the instructions instead.
Is it illegal to download gun blueprints in NSW?
Yes. Section 51F(1) of the Firearms Act 1996 (NSW) is one sentence:
"A person must not possess a digital blueprint for the manufacture of a firearm on a 3D printer or on an electronic milling machine. Maximum penalty: imprisonment for 14 years."
Read what that does not require. No printer. No milling machine. No printing, no attempt to print, no intention to print. The offence is complete when the file is in your possession. Fourteen years is the same maximum NSW sets for possessing an unregistered pistol.
"Digital blueprint" is defined in section 51F(3) as any type of digital or electronic reproduction of a technical drawing of the design of an object. That definition is wide, and it is doing a lot of work. It is not limited to a file that will print a working gun.
"Possession" is defined in the same subsection and reaches past the ordinary meaning. It includes possession of a computer or data storage device holding the blueprint, or of a document in which it is recorded. It also includes control of a blueprint held in a computer in the possession of another person, whether that computer is in NSW or outside it. A file in cloud storage on a server overseas is caught. So is a USB in a drawer.
The exceptions in section 51F(2) are narrow: a person authorised by a licence or permit to manufacture the firearm concerned, and a member of the Police Force other than a police officer acting in the ordinary course of duties. That is it.
The offence is not theoretical. In March 2022 the AFP charged a 61-year-old Port Macquarie man under section 51F after a search warrant found a 3D printer, filament, and files for a semi-automatic firearm on an SD card. There was no allegation he had printed anything. The files were the charge.
Section 51F was inserted by the Firearms and Weapons Prohibition Legislation Amendment Act 2015 (NSW). The same Act put a mirror offence in section 25B of the Weapons Prohibition Act 1998 (NSW) for blueprints to make a prohibited weapon, with the same 14 year maximum. That one catches printed knuckle dusters and similar items, and we cover the wider scheme in our note on tasers and pepper spray.
What is the penalty for making your own gun in NSW?
Section 50A splits it in two. Under section 50A(1), a person who manufactures a firearm is guilty of an offence unless authorised by a licence or permit to manufacture it. Maximum 10 years. Under section 50A(2), where the firearm is a prohibited firearm or a pistol, the maximum is 20 years.
Two subsections matter more than the numbers. Section 50A(5) says that to manufacture a firearm includes to assemble a firearm from firearm parts. Printing the parts and screwing them together is manufacturing. Section 50A(3) says the offence applies whether or not the firearm was made in the course of a business, which closes off any argument that the section is aimed at dealers.
Jurisdiction follows the split. Section 84(2) allows an offence under section 50A(1) or section 51F to be prosecuted on indictment, but those offences sit in Table 2 of Schedule 1 to the Criminal Procedure Act 1986 (NSW), so they are dealt with in the Local Court unless the prosecution elects otherwise. The Local Court maximum for a Table 2 offence is 2 years, or 50 penalty units, or both. Section 84(3) puts section 50A(2) beyond that: manufacturing a pistol or a prohibited firearm is to be prosecuted on indictment only. That gap between 2 years and 14 or 20 is the practical centre of most of these cases, and whether the prosecution elects is often worth more to the client than any argument made later.
What are the defences to a section 51F charge?
Section 51G sets out four, and every one of them puts the onus on the accused.
The first is knowledge. It is a defence if the defendant proves they did not know, and could not reasonably be expected to have known, that they possessed the blueprint. That one does most of the work in practice, because the possession definition is so wide. A shared drive, a family computer, a device someone else set up, an archive downloaded in bulk and never opened.
The second is the unsolicited file. It is a defence if the blueprint arrived unsolicited and the defendant, once aware of its nature, took reasonable steps to get rid of it. Note the timing. The clock starts when you learn what it is, and the answer is deletion, not storage.
The third is public benefit, and section 51G(4) defines it exhaustively: conduct necessary for or of assistance in enforcing or administering a law, monitoring compliance with or investigating a contravention of a law, or the administration of justice. Section 51G(5) adds that motive is irrelevant. Curiosity is not public benefit. Neither is journalism, on the face of the section. The fourth is research approved by the Attorney General in writing, and not in breach of any condition of the approval. Written approval, in advance.
The drafting tells you what Parliament had in mind. The Crown proves possession of a file. Everything else is for the defence to prove on the balance of probabilities. That is the reason a section 51F charge has to be met on the facts of possession first, before anyone reaches the defences.
Is possessing a 3D printed gun blueprint an offence in the ACT?
Not yet. This is the part that matters most for Canberra clients and it is not well understood.
The Firearms (Public Safety) Amendment Bill 2026 (ACT) would amend the Firearms Act 1996 (ACT) to create a blueprint offence. It was introduced in the Legislative Assembly on 4 February 2026. Alongside it the Bill would cap most licence holders at 5 firearms, recategorise firearm types, and prohibit belt-fed firearms. The exceptions to the proposed blueprint offence are licensed dealers authorised to manufacture, people engaged in official duties or law enforcement or the administration of justice, and people doing research approved by the Firearms Registrar.
It is not law. The Standing Committee on Legal Affairs reported in May 2026 with 11 recommendations, and the Government response is yet to be tabled. If the Bill passes, the amendments commence on a day set by the Minister to align with the National Buyback Scheme, and if no day is set they start automatically on 1 January 2028.
So there is a live gap. A Canberra resident holding the same file as a Sydney resident faces 14 years in one jurisdiction and no blueprint offence in the other, and may face none until 2028. Making the gun and possessing the gun are offences in the ACT now, and nothing here changes that. But the file, by itself, is not currently an ACT offence.
Two cautions before anyone relies on that. ACT Policing is the AFP, and a file stored in the ACT can be a file possessed in NSW on the section 51F definition, because control of a blueprint held on a computer in another person's possession counts wherever that computer sits. And the political direction is one way. National Cabinet agreed on 15 December 2025 to renegotiate the National Firearms Agreement, and the ACT has said further firearms reform will follow through 2026.
How do police find these cases?
Rarely by finding the gun first. The Clyde North matter started with a border referral. The Port Macquarie matter started with financial intelligence about online purchases of parts capable of making a sound suppressor, and a parcel labelled as 3D printer parts that the ABF examined at the mail gateway. Because the gun leaves no supply trail, the investigation runs on the purchases and the data instead: what was imported, what was paid for, what the phone held. That is why these matters arrive as a search warrant followed by a digital forensics report, and why a charge for refusing to open a device sits on the Clyde North charge list. The devices are the case. If a warrant has been executed at your home, our note on what to do after a search warrant covers the first steps.
What we do for clients facing these charges.
Start with possession, because that is what the Crown has to prove and it is usually proved by inference from a device. Whose device was it? Who else used it? Where was the file, and was it ever opened? A file in an unopened archive on a shared machine is a different case from a file in a named folder on a personal laptop, and the difference is the whole case.
Then the file itself. Section 51F requires a digital blueprint for the manufacture of a firearm on a 3D printer or an electronic milling machine. Not every file police call a blueprint answers that description. A photograph is not a technical drawing. A discussion thread is not a technical drawing. That is a question for expert evidence, and it is worth asking early.
Then how it was obtained. These charges come out of search warrants and device examinations, and section 138 of the Evidence Act 1995 (NSW) asks whether evidence was obtained improperly or unlawfully, and if so whether the desirability of admitting it outweighs the undesirability of admitting it. We have written about that discretion in DPP v Kan. Then jurisdiction: on a section 51F or section 50A(1) charge, keeping the matter in the Local Court caps the exposure at 2 years, and that is worth fighting for at the outset. Where firearms charges are laid alongside drug supply, bail is usually the immediate problem, and our note on show cause bail sets out what has to be established.
One plain warning to finish. People assume a file is not a gun, and that curiosity about a design is not a crime. In NSW that assumption is wrong by 14 years. If you have downloaded something and you are worried about it, get advice before you touch the device.
Frequently asked.
Are 3D printed guns illegal in Australia?
Yes. Making one without a licence or permit is an offence everywhere in Australia. In NSW, section 50A of the Firearms Act 1996 carries 10 years for manufacturing a firearm, and 20 years if it is a pistol or a prohibited firearm. Possessing the finished gun is a separate offence again. What differs between the states is whether the digital file is also criminal. NSW made possession of a digital blueprint an offence in 2015. Most other jurisdictions have not.
Is it illegal to download gun blueprints in NSW?
Yes. Section 51F of the Firearms Act 1996 (NSW) says a person must not possess a digital blueprint for the manufacture of a firearm on a 3D printer or on an electronic milling machine. The maximum is 14 years imprisonment. You do not need a printer, and you do not need to print anything. Having the file is the offence.
What is an FGC-9?
The FGC-9 is a semi-automatic firearm designed to be made at home from 3D-printed parts and hardware-store components, without any regulated gun parts. Its build manual was published online in 2020. It is the design Australian police seize most often, and it is the reason the digital file has become a law enforcement target in its own right.
What is the penalty for making your own gun in NSW?
Section 50A(1) of the Firearms Act 1996 (NSW) sets a maximum of 10 years for manufacturing a firearm without a licence or permit. Section 50A(2) sets 20 years where the firearm is a pistol or a prohibited firearm, and that offence can only be dealt with on indictment. Section 50A(5) says that manufacturing includes assembling a firearm from firearm parts, so putting printed parts together is enough.
What are the defences to a section 51F charge?
Section 51G sets out four. That the defendant did not know, and could not reasonably be expected to have known, that they possessed the blueprint. That it arrived unsolicited and they took reasonable steps to get rid of it once they knew what it was. That the conduct was of public benefit. That it was for research approved in writing by the Attorney General. Each of them must be proved by the defendant, not disproved by the Crown.
Is possessing a 3D printed gun blueprint an offence in the ACT?
Not yet. The Firearms (Public Safety) Amendment Bill 2026 (ACT) would create one, and it was introduced in the Legislative Assembly on 4 February 2026. The Standing Committee on Legal Affairs reported in May 2026 with 11 recommendations and the Government response is still to come. If passed, the amendments commence on a day set by the Minister, and otherwise start automatically on 1 January 2028. Until then there is no ACT blueprint offence, though making or possessing the firearm itself remains an offence.
To speak to a criminal defence lawyer, call Aaron Kernaghan on 0421 717 019.
This article is written by Aaron Kernaghan, criminal defence lawyer at Good Legal Lawyers, as at 18 July 2026. It is commentary and reflects the personal opinion of the author only. It is not legal advice, it is not a substitute for advice on your own matter, and it does not purport to be accurate or complete. Any matter referred to may be before the court and any person charged is presumed innocent. For advice on a specific matter, contact Aaron Kernaghan on 0421 717 019 or contact the firm.
More criminal-law commentary by Aaron Kernaghan.
Sources: Firearms and Weapons Prohibition Legislation Amendment Act 2015 (NSW), Sch 1 [7] and Sch 2 [1] · Firearms Amendment (Public Safety) Act 2002 (NSW), Sch 1 [12] · Firearms Act 1996 (NSW) · Judicial Commission of NSW, Local Court Bench Book · ACT Government, Strengthening gun laws · AFP media release, 17 July 2026 · JADE