FGC-9 - Misplaced Pages

3D-printable firearm

FGC-9

Type	Semiautomatic carbine
Place of origin	Germany
Service history
Wars	Myanmar civil war (2021–present)
Production history
Designer	Jacob Duygu (JStark1809) of Deterrence Dispensed
Designed	2018–2020
Produced	2019–present
Variants	see variants
Specifications
Mass	2.1 kg (4 lb 10.1 oz) without magazine
Length	520 mm (20.5 in)
Barrel length	114 mm (4.5 in)

Cartridge	9×19mm
Action	Closed bolt blowback action
Feed system	Glock magazine, including custom extended variants
Sights	Picatinny rail

The FGC-9 is a 3D-printable, semi-automatic, pistol-caliber carbine. The firearm was first designed and manufactured between 2018 and 2020 by Jacob Duygu, a Kurdish German gun designer known by the pseudonym "JStark1809". In April 2021, a "MkII" revision was released. As of 2024, the FGC-9 is "by far" the world's most common 3-D printed gun, used by insurgents, militia members, terrorists, and drug traffickers in at least 15 countries. The gun's most prominent promoter is "Ivan The Troll," a man identified as John Elik in legal documents.

Purpose

The gun's name is an initialism for "Fuck Gun Control", where the "9" refers to its 9mm cartridge. Released with accompanying documentation to aid its production and assembly, as well as the production of suitable ammunition, the FGC-9 is premised on the idea of undermining worldwide gun control. Though the majority of the firearm is 3D-printable, its pressure-bearing components are metal parts that may be purchased or homemade. The total cost of production, assuming the builder owns a 3D printer, is less than US$500.

Origin

The FGC-9 was originally designed and manufactured between 2018 and 2020 by JStark1809, a pseudonymous German-Kurdish gun designer, with contributions from the "guerrilla 3D-gun file development group" Deterrence Dispensed, and was released on March 27, 2020. The design is a remix of an earlier 3D printable firearm, the Shuty AP-9 pistol by Derwood. Where the "Shuty" relied on several factory-made or machined gun parts (like the barrel) in order to be completed, the FGC-9 made ergonomic and mechanical changes to accommodate builders without access to commercial gun parts or machine shops. These changes and documentation honor the mutual influence of Defense Distributed's Liberator and Philip Luty's even earlier SMG designs.

The FGC-9 is designed with Europeans in mind; fasteners and build materials use the metric standard and are available from hardware stores. The magazine can be 3D printed, and the entire design works without needing any regulated, commercial gun parts. The FGC-9's barrel can be completed in several ways, including the easily adopted method of electrochemical machining.

Mark II

An updated design, the MkII, was first announced on October 23, 2020 by En Bloc Press. It was released on April 16, 2021 on DEFCAD and Odysee by user "The Gatalog." The updated weapon uses a H&K MP5 style charging handle, an improved electro-chemical machining process to make the barrel, and some ergonomic improvements as well. The release was the final package in a string of multiple smaller releases, which included the improved barrel ECMv2.0 process, and the Menendez Mag v2.0, and the Common Sense Fire Control Group AR-15 printable trigger, all created by Ivan The Troll in preparation for the FGC-9 MkII release.

Modifications

Due to the open-source nature of the FGC-9, there have been many packages released that alter the configuration, caliber, ergonomics, and other legally-restrictive qualities of the base-model firearm. These are all available through a wide variety of channels, all with different levels of testing, and allow the end user to customize their weapon as needed. One very common branch is replacing the buttstock with an ATF-approved pistol brace, in order for U.S. citizens to comply with NFA rifle and pistol requirements. Another common branch is replacing the barrel with a 16-inch (41 cm) barrel in order to comply with U.S. minimum barrel length requirements, in addition to adding an extended handguard to replace the default one. The firearms hobbyist and instructor QueerArmorer created a version of the top rail for use in Myanmar by rebels fighting with limited access to optics in the Myanmar civil war, however its use was limited as another team from Deterrence Dispensed developed printable iron sights that allowed for more flexibility.

Variants

Name	Date made public	Designer
FGC-9 MkII	April 16, 2021	JStark1809(DetDisp), IvanTheTroll(DetDisp), 3socksandcrocs(DetDisp)
FGC-9 MkII	Updated design with an H&K MP5 style charging handle. Released to work with a string of smaller releases, including an improved barrel making process and V2 Menendez Mag. Includes the "ButWhatAboutAmmo" tutorial for fabricating ammunition.
FGC-9 MKII Stingray	June 18, 2022	hotsauce
FGC-9 MKII Stingray	A DIY 16-inch (41 cm) barreled carbine based on the FGC-9. In use by the People's Defense Force in Myanmar.
Partisan-9	February 3, 2023	ImmortalRevolt, Deterrents Dispensed / The Gatalog
Partisan-9	Based on the FGC-9 MkII. Has a ported barrel for integral suppression, similar to the MP5SD. Uses an improved ECM process to create the barrel. Features a folding stock and buffer tube.
FGC-9 MKII Bufferless	Bufferless version with the bolt placed mostly forward similar to Mussy's WTF-9
FMGC-01	Bufferless select fire variant that uses Sten magazines instead of Glock's
Nutty-9	July 15, 2024	TooAceForThisShit, Joe.Dirt, Ruby Grace Builds, NotThatTimmyHicks, IamArizona, DetDisp, The Gatalog, Black Lotus Coalition
Nutty-9	an improved bolt design consisting of nothing more than four nuts and two bolts screwed into a printed connector piece, which eliminates the requirement for welding, significantly reducing both build costs and the required skill of the builder. This innovation removes the necessity of a welding machine from the construction process, making it simpler and more cost-efficient. Comes in metric and imperial standards Can use a Glock barrel or a custom made barrel like the original FGC-9
The Urutau	August 20, 2024	Joseph The Parrot, A.K.A. Zé Carioca
The Urutau	Bullpup variant which uses a telescoping bolt, a 3D printed fire control group/trigger designed from the ground up and CZ Scorpion magazines, notable for its quality documentation wriiten by RSmith28. While most of the underlying mechanics of The Urutau are comparable to the FGC-9, all parts were significantly redesigned. All parts are made from easily accessible, less-firearm-related components that improve supply chain resilience and enhance the builder's operational security when sourcing materials. The Urutau features a bolt designed to eliminate any welding requirements, eliminating the need for welding hardware and reducing the initial price by roughly $100, depending upon the builder's location. The estimated minimum cost to construct a Urutau stands at around $500 for the initial gun, including printer and hardware, and $200 for each subsequent gun. Aside from the ejection port, the entire gun is ambidextrous. The controls are all extremely basic so that non-English speakers with little firearm experience may intuitively understand how to use them. In addition to the manual safety mechanism, the Urutau incorporates safety features to manage the risk of an out-of-battery detonation. The hammer's geometry is designed to ensure that it cannot make contact with the firing pin unless the bolt is in battery. In the unlikely event of an out-of-battery detonation, a specially engineered channel redirects gasses upwards and away from the user, enhancing safety and minimizing the risk of injury.

Materials

The upper and lower receivers of the FGC-9 are fully 3D-printed, as are its pistol grip and stock. Its magazine, based on the Glock magazine design, may also be printed. For the MkI, an AR-15 or modified airsoft trigger system is needed for the fire control. In the MkII release, the developers released a package to 3D-print the AR-15 trigger. The barrel can be rifled polygonally through electrochemical machining. Some designers have estimated the tooling to complete the FGC-9, including the price of the printer (~$200) and electrochemical machining equipment (~$100), at $500. JStark1809 estimated the project to take 1.5 to 2 weeks to build.

Availability

The gun's 3D-printing files were released under an open-source license on DEFCAD by JStark1809, and then uploaded to various hosting platforms by Deterrence Dispensed such as Odysee, a free-speech blockchain based video, audio and file hosting site using the LBRY protocol.

According to Rajan Basra, a professor at International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of War Studies at King's College London, the FGC is particularly popular among far-right groups due to the sharing of its instructions in extremist internet forums.

Promotion

Ivan the troll firing a 9mm round using his FGC-9 MKII

FGC-9 MkII Slow motion firing footage filmed by Ivan the troll

Ivan the Troll, the one of the head/admin of Deterrence Dispensed/Gatalog and FGC-9 co-designer, actively promotes the files for the gun online. According to the Rajan Basra, a professor at International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of War Studies at King's College London, Nathan Mayer, a security researcher from the United States, and reporting from the New York Times, Ivan can be identified as John Elik, a 26-year-old licensed gunmaker in Illinois.

Investigations

JStark1809 Firing his FGC-9

Jake Hanrahan of Popular Front interviewed JStark1809 about the FGC-9 and 3D printed guns in November 2020. JStark1809 stated that he had no background in engineering, taught himself CAD, and learned what he needed through widely-available resources on the internet. With his rudimentary operation, he showed how to manufacture an FGC-9 in two weeks or less. He shot the gun in a forest and demonstrated its reliability and rapid firing rate. JStark1809 described his absolutist belief in the right to keep and make arms, as well as his desire to make the weapons widely available in order to protect human rights. Hanrahan described him as "one of the most dangerous people" he had ever met and criticized authorities for underestimating the power of 3D-printed guns.

Der Spiegel reported in October 2021 that British financial services had provided clues on the identity of JStark1809 to the Federal Criminal Police Office, and they identified a 28-year-old man in Völklingen who went by "Jacob D." Police had raided his home that June, though they found no weapons and did not take him into custody. Two days after the raid, he was found dead in his car in front of his parents' home in Hannover. Coroners determined the cause of death to be a heart attack and ruled out foul play.

In October 2023, a report published by the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence named JStark1809 as Jacob Duygu, a German national born to Kurdish parents who arrived as refugees from Southeast Turkey in the 1990s. The report claims he is the author of hundreds of anonymous internet posts, but does so using statistical inference from language patterns rather than direct evidence. The recovered posts are xenophobic, racist, antisemitic, and misogynistic, and endorse anti-State violence. Direct evidence of Jacob's life as an incel, and his desire to travel to Southeast Asia and commit suicide, has been found in episode 5 of investigative journalist Naama Kates' podcast The Incel Project.

Users and use

According to the New York Times, from 2021-2024, the FGC-9 has been used by or found in possession of "paramilitaries in Northern Ireland, rebels in Myanmar and neo-Nazis in Spain", and has become a "staple" weapon of "the world's far-right extremists". Improvised factories for making the gun have been found in Australia, France and Spain. As of September 2024, an FGC-9 has not been linked to a homicide by law enforcement agencies, but this may be "because traditional forensic techniques are not always reliable on homemade weapons".

Myanmar: MkII and MkII Stingray variant used by rebel forces in the Myanmar civil war (2021–present).
Complete and incomplete models have been recovered by police forces in the European Union, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United States, Taiwan, and Iceland
Dissident republican paramilitaries: MkII variant seen in the hands of a member of the dissident Irish republican paramilitary Óglaigh na hÉireann during a parade in Easter 2022.
Finland: A Finnish man was sentenced to prison for one year four months because he manufactured at least 8 guns. Also in Finland, three men were convicted in relation to the production of 3D-printed weapons.
United Kingdom: Matthew Cronjager, a British neo-Nazi, was arrested after attempting to pay an undercover police officer in exchange for the manufacture of an FGC-9. His goal was to recruit and arm a militia, targeting Jews, gay people, Muslims and others, and to overthrow the UK government. He was convicted and jailed for more than 11 years. In the UK, possession and sharing of an FGC-9 instruction manual is a terrorist offense.