Not smart.....

Bay Area startup founder arrested, accused of selling 3D-printed guns on Etsy

By Stephen Council

A Bay Area man was arrested last week on suspicion of dealing firearms across state lines without a license. His Etsy store, according to federal officials, sold 3D-printed Glock-style handgun frames that he had labeled as Airsoft shooting toys. 

Before his Aug. 13 arrest, Alexander McGrail Reynolds was the founder of a small tech startup and the brains behind a now-defunct Etsy shop called Mcgrail’s 3D Prints. He lists his location as Walnut Creek on LinkedIn and is accused of mailing the gun parts from an address in Concord but was arrested on orders from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Court Watch, which first reported the criminal complaint and arrest documents, pointed out that Reynolds’ arrest appears to join a pattern of crackdowns on out-of-state gun sales by New York prosecutors.

The arrest came after months of investigation by agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in New York, according to an Aug. 9 affidavit from ATF agent Evan Moscou-Lewis. The affidavit included a screenshot of a “Glock 17 Airsoft Frame” made of 3D printer material, up for sale on Reynolds’ Etsy page for $35. The frame of a pistol is its bottom half, which doesn’t typically include the barrel or slide; under the relevant federal law, a frame that “​​may readily be converted to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive” is considered a firearm.

After finding the Etsy listing in November, ATF agents ordered two frames and had them analyzed, according to the affidavit. They determined the products fit the legal definition of a firearm. From December to March, the agents ordered 33 more of the handgun frames for delivery to the Bronx in New York, according to Moscou-Lewis’ affidavit. The agent also used Etsy to chat with the Mcgrail’s 3D Prints store.

“I told the operator of the Reynolds Etsy Shop that I was satisfied with the ‘PY2A’ style frames that had been purchased from the Reynolds Etsy Shop but was ‘looking for something FMDA style,’” Moscou-Lewis said in the affidavit, referring to abbreviations for “Print Your Second Amendment” and “Free Men Don’t Ask.”

The store operator responded that they’d send “all 4 fmda 19 gen 3” in an upcoming shipment, Moscou-Lewis recounted in the affidavit, noting the abbreviations refer specifically to Glock-style ghost guns, “not replica firearms.”

Agents also found photos and reviews of the handgun frames on the Etsy shop page, according to the affidavit. Per the document, they also found “three functioning Glock-style ghost guns with 3D printed frames” alongside shipping materials that matched the Etsy shop’s during a search in Staten Island.

Messages sent to Reynolds’ apparent LinkedIn account, Instagram profile and email addresses were unreturned. Etsy also did not immediately provide answers to SFGATE’s questions. The company’s “house rules” prohibit the sale of weapons, including imitation firearms. Etsy appears to have taken down the Mcgrail’s 3D Prints store; the link on McGrail’s TikTok page leads to an empty webpage. The Etsy store removal only happened after Court Watch wrote about the case, according to the outlet.

Reynolds faces two charges: dealing firearms without a license and the unlawful transfer, sale or delivery of a firearm to a person in another state. Each carries a maximum of five years of imprisonment and a $250,000 fine, plus three years of supervised release. He has been released from custody, and his proceedings will continue in New York, per an Aug. 13 filing.