US: Security fears over how 3D gun developed by Texas anarchist could play into hands of Isis

A Texas-based anarchist has been branded irresponsible and playing into the hands of terrorists for reportedly creating a 3D printing process he claims can be used to build a machine gun for only £100.

Cody Wilson, 27, says he has developed the 3D modelling process which allows gun parts to be created from a digital file that can be downloaded anywhere.

He says that his invention, which cannot be picked up by airport scanners, could be available within weeks and all that is needed is a £15,000 printer. An additional £100 could pay for materials which include nails, to be used as a firing pin, plastic bullet shells, smokeless gunpowder and improvised shrapnel items.

The Daily Mirror reported how the pro-gun activist Wilson said he could release the code for his 3D machine gun as early as April and is locked in a legal battle with the ­White House after it ordered him to take down the online code for his 3D Liberator pistol which he has already developed.

The newspaper reported how he was "not really" bothered if the weapons fell into the hands of terrorist gangs, saying: "I am fighting my fight with the government but we have a whole new range of things."

British security experts told the paper that it posed a risk for the UK given how fears are growing that Isis could launch a Paris-style massacre in London.

Counter terror expert Hamish de Bretton Gordon told the Mirror that the UK Government should keep a record of everyone who buys a 3D printer.

"This is making terrorists' jobs so much easier, particularly in the UK where security services are putting in so much effort to prevent an attack by one of IS's "clean skins". The person who is releasing this is completely irresponsible.

"We can only hope the authorities in the US are going to deal with this individual. It's absolutely crazy."

Shadow Police Minister Jack Dromey told the tabloid: "This is a bizarre and dangerous proposal. A plastic machine gun could go unnoticed by airport ­security, putting the travelling public at risk of terrorist attack."

3D printing is a revolutionary technology that is being used in many sectors, such as health and the arts.