this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2026
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More police busts in Italy (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by Wispy2891@lemmy.world to c/3dprinting@lemmy.world
37 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Remember one month ago Italian police seized an extremely dangerous pla letter opener and a teenager's printer?

They're back

First they seized "a factory" of PLA knuckles: https://www.ildolomiti.it/cronaca/2026/un-15enne-e-un-13enne-producevano-tirapugni-con-le-stampanti-3d-della-scuola-hanno-anche-minacciato-un-compagno-che-voleva-denunciarli (a 13 years old kid printed multiple copies with the school's printer)

Now they went to the home of another middle schooler to seize his printer because he printed a prop from assassin's Creed: https://www.rainews.it/tgr/bolzano/articoli/2026/02/lame-stampate-in-3d-sequestrate-in-una-scuola-di-bolzano-eb67732d-a7a1-4eac-842b-a0bf7a87e937.html

I feel much safer now that those factories of dangerous weapons are now seized

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[–] lemjukes@sopuli.xyz 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I don't think these really are the scare monger pieces you're trying to frame them as. Both articles are very much so about some idiot teenagers printing and bringing 3d printed weapons to school. Police would have seized any tools the kids had been using to produce these items because thats how evidence collection works. Even your story from last month hinges around the items being found in a school.

Don't get me wrong there are legitimate threats to 3d printing as a technology with proposed legistation in some US states aimed at curtailing 3d printed "ghost guns". That fundamentally misunderstand the technology and instead are attempting to enforce a censorship mechanic that is entirely unfeasible. But these articles just arent an outcrop of the same kind of thing, IMO

[–] Wispy2891@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

kids have cutters and scissors in their stationery kit and that is more dangerous than this toys. They way they presented the evidence make it look like they seized some meth factory and not "kids underestimated that printing toys that look like weapons and bring them to school is not a good idea"

[–] tyrant@lemmy.world 25 points 1 week ago (1 children)

How do they know about these prints?

[–] phaseshift@lemmy.zip 21 points 1 week ago (2 children)

First article says a peer reported them after being threatened

[–] PumaStoleMyBluff@lemmy.world 29 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That is refreshingly non-fascist

[–] sauerkrautsaul@lemmus.org 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

yeah its just old school snitch bitch action

[–] kungen@feddit.nu 19 points 1 week ago (1 children)

There's nothing wrong with snitching if someone is unduly threatening you.

[–] Wispy2891@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The article actually said the kid was threatened because wanted to snitch

[–] Niquarl@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Still wrong to threaten them. I don't know about the Italian context but elsewhere there's been lots LF news about kids killing or maiming people

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Of course. But seizing 3D printers will do absolutely nothing to help with that.

[–] lemjukes@sopuli.xyz 1 points 3 days ago

I mean, they seized the printers the kids used to make the weapons as evidence in the investigation, thats just how that works and has nothing to do with the fact that they're 3d printers specifically. if they were using any kind of tool or material to produce the weapons, those tools would be seized as part of regular evidence collection.

[–] nullroot@lemmy.world -1 points 1 week ago

Do Italian police have ridiculously over inflated budget and need to make it look like they're doing something? Because this really doesn't seem like a situation that needed police intervention.

[–] Wispy2891@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago

The article writes as the two kids were printing the toys using the school 3d printer, a third saw what they were doing and wanted to report them, at that point they threatened him

[–] aBundleOfFerrets@sh.itjust.works 21 points 1 week ago (2 children)

How long until woods is banned from high schools because you can manufacture yourself some premium wooden knuckles

[–] dRLY@lemmy.ml 23 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Wait until they find out what can be done with socks and some rocks inside them.

[–] NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

or a ready-made sack of Valencia Oranges.

[–] kmartburrito@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Or a bag of nickels

[–] nomy@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 week ago

I roll the nickles!

[–] BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago

I usually don't put my rocks in my socks to get my rocks off (ತ◞౪◟ತ‵)

[–] MolochAlter@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

Bold of you to assume that Italian highschools have a shop class, the 3D printer is probably part of the computer lab.

Source: am Italian.

[–] ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Man how fucking dumb are some of these kids...fucking printing knuckles on school printers!? (These will still break a jaw easily if used, and are illegal to even own in many places) Threatening another kid for reporting them for doing shit they're not allowed to!?

JFC...

[–] filcuk@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

13 yo? If they're anything like me that age, pretty fucking dumb.

[–] ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Actually making weapons, plastic or not, on school equipment is a whole other level of stupidity well beyond regular 13yo idiocy.

[–] shads@lemy.lol 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Well yes, but also no. I went to school with a bunch of dumb asses who used metalwork classes to make "throwing stars", and half of them haven't been to prison yet.

I had an electronics teacher help me make "tripwires" to play a prank on a friend at school camp that would set off an airhorn once tripped, it was only after I finished he thought to mention "Don't use these to trigger anything else, and don't put the airhorn inside the tent with him."

Teenagers and sometimes the engineers who fall in to teaching them can be astoundingly dumb and work the challenge rather than think of the consequences.

[–] ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Eh...your garage door has a "trip wire" type device. They're not just for traps.

[–] shads@lemy.lol 1 points 4 days ago

He was aware of the use case. He was told in no uncertain terms what it would be used for and made suggestions around how to conceal the devices. I think we all know that there are certain people who will get so caught up working the problem that they often don't think about consequences til much later.

[–] Damage@feddit.it 1 points 1 week ago

I used to make wooden swords when I was even younger than that, and I sanded them until they were sharp. My grandpa would find and snap them.

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

the knuckles article mentions "white weapons". is that a term of art in italian that i'm too not-italian-speaking to know?

[–] MolochAlter@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Yes, it's the literal translation of our term for bladed melee weapons.

[–] Jocarnail@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

To add to this, it is the general term for all non-firearms: so it covers also bludgeons and anything else you swing by hand.

[–] MolochAlter@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Oh, I was convinced it was specifically bladed, as opposed to armi contundenti.

You always learn something new.

[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 8 points 1 week ago

Sir! Put that piece of wood down and nobody gets hurt!

[–] Damage@feddit.it 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I mean, if kids bring or make weapons at school, what would you expect to happen?

[–] lemjukes@sopuli.xyz 1 points 3 days ago

exactly, these is not a "ThEyRE cOMinG FeR OuR PRinTERs!" stories. these are a couple of "some idiot teenagers in italy got caught making crappy plastic 'weapons' and bringing them to school to sell or show off to other idiot teenagers and a couple of news agencies picked it up cause it'll generate clicks" stories.

[–] ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip -1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

They have scissors at school already that are way more dangerous than that hunk of plastic...

[–] Damage@feddit.it 1 points 4 days ago

it's the intent that makes the difference