Schumer: Plastic-Gun Bill Has Dangerous Loophole
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- In the 1993 movie "In the Line of Fire," the villain portrayed by John Malkovich crafts a plastic gun to try to kill the president.
With 3-D printers increasingly able to produce plastic weapons, that possibility is no longer purely science fiction.
"Anyone with a thousand dollars can make one of these plastic guns that are undetectable as they go through metal detectors," Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Tuesday.
Schumer: Plastic-Gun Bill Has Dangerous Loophole
While the Republican-controlled House on Tuesday passed a new 10-year ban on firearms that that can evade metal detectors and X-ray machines, some Senate Democrats say that bill is flawed. A loophole in the legislation would make plastic guns legal by adding a removable piece of metal to the handle, Schumer said.
"That's very dangerous because if you can remove the metal at the last minute, put the gun through the metal detector, it'll get through and could create mayhem," Schumer told reporters in Midtown Manhattan, including WCBS 880's Marla Diamond.
The House bill was passed "at the behest of the most extreme elements of the far right," Schumer said.
Schumer wants to amend the law to mandate that metal be a permanent part of the gun. But time is running out -- the Senate returns from vacation Dec. 9, the same day the current law expires.
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