The blueprint used to produce a 3D-printed plastic gun has been downloaded about 100,000 times since going online earlier this week, according to Forbes.
Defense Distributed told the news site it was surprised by the amount of interest its Liberator gun had generated.
Earlier in the week, the company demonstrated the firearm being fired
But even before any more guns come off the DIY printing presses, there are moves afoot to ban it.
Metal detectors
Californian senator Leland Yee said he wanted a law passed to stop the manufacture of 3D-printed guns.
"I plan to introduce legislation that will ensure public safety and stop the manufacturing of guns that are invisible to metal detectors and that can be easily made without a background check," he said in a statement.
According to Defense Distributed, most of the 100,000 downloads have been in the US, followed by Spain, Brazil, Germany and the UK.
The blueprint has also been uploaded to file-sharing site the Pirate Bay, where it has become the most popular file in the site's 3D-printing category.
Looks like were gunna need plastic detectors now lol. Even if you ban the site the download will always be on there, nothing leaves the internet.. ever...
Yeah this could spell trouble for police, cities, and the average citizen. I just hope gangs aren't smart enough to use 3D printers or else there will be much more innocent killings.
This is going to cause a huge problem for airport security and just security in general. All firearms should be detectable. It puts a lot less people at risk if the police know someone has a gun.