3D-printed weapons an emerging threat in schools — here’s what parents can do
The Beam journalist-in-residence Alice Driver holds up a 3D-printed switchblade during a conversation with her editors in The Beam's newsroom. Photo courtesy of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Story highlights
- Investigation finds cases across Arizona of students bringing 3D-printed weapons to school
- Schools range widely in their response
- Parents can take a number of actions to help safeguard students
As the school year gets underway for families, there’s a hidden danger made possible by an otherwise innocuous piece of equipment found in many home offices.
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New investigative newsroom launches at ASU's Howard Center for Investigative Journalism
A recent monthslong investigation by The Beam revealed cases across the state where K–12 students brought 3D-printed weapons — including switchblades, box cutters and butterfly knives — into school.
All were made of the plastic filament that 3D printers use and thus would not be caught in any metal detectors a given school might have. The designs for these weapons are easily found online.
“One of the first records that I read described a child who had come to school with an object, a 3D-printed weapon that was described as a box cutter, and a gun. And the record also said that he was selling these items on campus and that he had a lot of cash,” said Alice Driver, investigative reporter and a research assistant professor at Arizona State University’s Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
“ … These records were from 2025 and 2026. So these are all recent weapons that have been confiscated, and one of the kids was 10 years old.”
The Beam is a multimedia newsroom that produces in-depth reporting on issues that matter to Arizona communities. It is housed in the Cronkite School as part of the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism.
Howard Center Executive Editor Mark Greenblatt said the cases were not concentrated in one school.
“It’s not just happening in Scottsdale, Arizona. It’s not just happening in Chandler, Arizona,” he said. “This is happening across the state, and it’s happening across the country, and different school districts are responding in different ways.”
The investigation found that some districts informed families immediately when the weapons were discovered. Others, however, classified the objects as toys and did not take further action.
No one was hurt in the cases reviewed by the investigative team, but Driver and Greenblatt emphasized that these are true weapons, with sharp edges and the capacity to injure others.
“The first time I handled a 3D-printed weapon, I was just really surprised,” Driver said. “… I could hurt myself with this. You could hurt someone else.”
There are several actions parents should take, the team advised:
- Monitor the printing history on your printer to see what your children may have been creating.
- Check the settings of what your children are able to watch on YouTube, as many are finding tutorials there on how to print weapons.
- Ask questions of principals and school boards as to what their policies are with these objects — and whether they’ve considered it at all yet. Will they classify them as weapons or toys? Will they inform families when they’ve been found on school grounds?
The investigation hit particularly close to home for Greenblatt, who previously had purchased a 3D printer.
“I bought one of the 3D printers with the idea that my 10-year-old daughter in fifth grade would get creative and start printing fun things, that maybe it might be dragons and might be toys that maybe she would sell and start a business with,” Greenblatt said. “I was not expecting that by buying this printer that I was bringing something that could be a weapons manufacturing facility into my home.”
Investigative reporting for the community
The Beam, funded by the Scripps Howard Foundation, shares its reporting at no cost. It places a special emphasis on supporting news outlets that don’t have the resources to produce their own investigations.
“We're very fortunate at Arizona State University that we have an investigative reporting center that is funded to do public records requests, do real research on real threats to society, emerging threats,” said Mark Greenblatt, executive editor in the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at ASU, which houses The Beam.
“And it’s because of Arizona State’s innovative nature, because of what the Walter Cronkite School is bringing to the table, that we have the time and the resources to go out and ask all large school districts in Arizona what kinds of weapons are coming into your classroom.”
Learn more about this and other investigations at thebeam.org.
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