German federal police forces are getting into the 3-D printing business. Responding to a question posed by the Left Party in parliament, the Bundeskriminalamt (BKA, the Federal Criminal Police) and the Bundespolizei (BPOL, the Federal Police) purchased a 3-D printer to see how easy it would be to make weapons that could successfully bypass airport security checks. They also want to see if the technology has any potential police use.

Authorities have been—perhaps rightfully—a little bit worried about the average crazy Joe being able to print a 3-D killer weapon at home since Defense Distributed posted the designs to its first completely 3-D printed gun in early May.