Understanding the 3D-printed Guns Movement: A Surprising Mix of Identities and the Risk of Gender-based Violence

By Rajan Basra

In the world of 3D-printed guns, one figure looms large: ‘JStark1809’. It is difficult to overstate his influence. He designed the FGC-9, one of the most popular 3D-printed guns in circulation. He also created Deterrence Dispensed, an influential network of gun designers. Since his death in 2021 he has been revered as a quasi-martyr for the right to bear arms, resulting in a cult-like following within the 3D-printed gun movement.

Using a combination of open-source material, I traced JStark1809’s digital footprint, identified him as Jacob Duygu, and found previously unknown aspects of the latter’s life, beliefs, and actions—including his misogynist attitudes. In turn, his example highlights some issues associated with 3D-printed guns and gender-based violence for policymakers to consider.

The JStark1809 persona

The ‘JStark1809’ identity was born from a mix of US gun culture and radically gun-friendly internet forums. Despite Duygu being a German citizen with Kurdish roots, JStark1809’s online persona took inspiration from General John Stark, who fought in the US Revolutionary War. He adopted Stark’s ‘live free or die’ slogan, which first appeared in a letter that Stark wrote in 1809, and in an interview referred to living in 21st-century Europe—with its gun control laws—as being in ‘enemy territory’.

Across podcasts, interviews, and a documentary, Duygu promoted his belief that access to guns should be a universal right. He was explicit about his aim: ‘to enable everyone around the world to manufacture firearms and ammo, to be able to have the right to bear arms, everywhere’; and believed that 3D-printed guns were the means of achieving this. With his unrelenting and uncompromising attitude, he became an icon in the 3D-printed gun culture (often referred to as GunCAD) after he released the FGC-9 semi-automatic, pistol-calibre carbine in 2020, which he had designed. True to his vision, the gun requires no regulated components.

Jacob Duygu, the incel

Therefore, behind JStark1809, the hypermasculine persona, was Jacob Duygu, the emasculated incel (‘involuntary celibate’). He saw himself as ‘ugly’, socially awkward, and unable to form sexual or romantic relationships with women. Believing he was writing anonymously, Duygu complained on the popular imageboard 4chan: ‘Bruh, [I] have Asperger and ADHD, look like a 4/10 and can’t even manage to attract 2/10 girls’. He came to believe that his autism, height, and ethnicity doomed him to romantic and sexual frustration. In turn, he wrote that he felt lonely, depressed, and—ultimately—suicidal.

But Duygu did not just blame personal shortcomings for his life as an incel—he also blamed society at large, especially feminism. As is typical in incel discourse, he wrote that women have ‘the leverage’ and ‘power’ in sexual and romantic relationships. Faced with this loss of power, Duygu saw misogynist violence as a natural consequence. At times, he made comments sympathizing with Elliot Rodger, an incel who in May 2014 killed six people and injured 14 others using guns and knives.

Duygu even went as far as endorsing violence against women. For instance, he wrote in 2017: ‘Stacies [an incel term for attractive women] deserve a painful death. Women have too much power and us men have become more and more powerless. Incel revenge is near’. Duygu’s views oscillated (he later distanced himself from incel-motivated violence), but just a few days before his death he made the following threat: ‘I will literally … kill myself soon if [I] can’t sleep in a bed with a girl again’.

Duygu kept this aspect of his life entirely distinct from his JStark1809 persona. However, his life as an incel and his projection of a hyper-masculine image were possibly connected, with the persona compensating for his feelings of emasculation. Although there is no evidence to suggest that Duygu engaged in any incel-motivated violence, his digital footprint reveals a profoundly disturbed and volatile person.

The heterogeneous 3D-printed gun movement

However, reducing the GunCAD movement to one figure would be a disservice. Neither Jacob Duygu, the man, nor JStark1809, the persona, represents everyone involved. No in-depth study has been made of the backgrounds and motivations of people involved in 3D-printed guns. Nonetheless, by observing the online communities, it is clear that the movement is heterogeneous, with a mix of individuals and groups, each with their own character and personality.

The movement attracts three general types. Chief among these are gun enthusiasts and hobbyists who love the creative possibilities and technical innovations that 3D-printed guns bring. They get involved because they find it fun and enjoy connecting with others (whether online or offline) who share their passions. Also in the mix are organized criminals looking to make untraceable guns, potentially to sell for profit via online marketplaces and forums.

Others are ideologically motivated, believing that bearing arms is a human right and are therefore highly sceptical of—if not hostile to—state intervention in people’s lives. In this way, there is a strong libertarian and US Second Amendment influence. For them, the technology is a means of ensuring anyone, anywhere, can make their own guns, thus evading gun control laws and rendering them obsolete.

A surprising mix of ideologies and identities

In the United States, gun rights and being pro-Second Amendment are generally seen as right-wing issues. However, several causes typically considered left wing have recently come to champion the right to bear arms. Among them are some LGBTQ activists, such as the ‘Pink Pistols’, who see gun rights as a means for members of the LGBTQ community to defend themselves against violence targeting people based on their sexual orientation or gender identification. The underlying rationale is that armed minorities are harder to harm, oppress, or subjugate.

This has naturally extended to the 3D-printed gun movement, where some queer and trans people encourage others in their community to make their own guns. A curious symbiosis of gun rights and trans rights has thus emerged, promoting slogans such as ‘gun rights are trans rights’ and ‘armed and trans, deterrence means survival’. One notable 3D-printed GunCAD designer known as ‘Ruby Grace’ self-identified as queer and trans (she died in 2023). Despite some hostility, she was widely accepted and celebrated in the 3D-printed gun movement.

The open-access nature of digital blueprints

One main aim of the GunCAD movement is to popularize 3D-printed guns. They do not bury digital blueprints for these weapons in obscure, password-protected dark web forums, but want to make them accessible, resulting in the designs being readily available on the surface web.

As such, anyone can download these designs and use them to produce guns. This includes organized criminals, extremist movements, and armed groups of various persuasions. A dissident republican paramilitary in Northern Ireland, for instance, publicly brandished FGC-22s in 2022. Similarly, pro-democracy insurgents in Myanmar have used the FGC-9 in hit-and-run ambushes of military junta forces there, using it as a way of seizing conventionally manufactured firearms.

This potential extends to small cells and lone actor extremists, who may lack access to conventionally manufactured firearms sold on the illicit gun market. Between 2019 and 2022 over a dozen cases have been identified of extremists across Europe either sharing digital blueprints, making 3D-printed gun components, or attempting to use them. Most of these documented cases involved people from the far right, although the phenomenon may also spread to other ideologies.

Recommendations

In light of the preceding discussion and building on the UN Programme of Action on Small Arms, which made several references to 3D printing in the outcome document of its fourth review conference in June 2024, policymakers are encouraged to:

• pay close attention to upcoming 3D-printed firearm designs under development. The soon-to-be-established open-ended technical expert group should engage with experts in open-source intelligence to identify the online spaces where 3D-printed firearm prototypes are designed, shared, and tested, thus anticipating future releases of these weapons;
• approach GunCAD not just as the source of a technique to produce 3D-printed guns, but also as a social movement. A comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach from across academia, civil society, and the private sector is required to understand its thinking, behaviour, and possible future directions;
• recognise that the threat may not be confined to traditional armed groups or the ‘usual suspects’. 3D-printed firearms especially appeal to lone actors and small cells, and identifying potential future users of these weapons is vital; and
• monitor the digital ecosystems where potentially dangerous crossovers can occur between 3D-printed guns and extremists of various ideologies, including those that advocate gender-based violence.

Jacob Duygu was but one example of someone with a misogynist incel mindset who was also involved in designing, producing, and popularizing 3D-printed guns. While there is no evidence that he engaged in gender-based violence, his story should serve as a warning.

The Small Arms Survey confirms that all quotes in this blog post are accurate and that the sources have been verified.

This blog post was produced within the framework of the Gender and Small Arms Project, which is co-financed by Germany and Switzerland.

Blog posts are intended as a way for various Small Arms Survey collaborators and researchers to discuss small arms- and armed violence-related issues, and do not necessarily reflect the views of either the Small Arms Survey or its donors.