Criminals could find templates online to print a 3D gun with relative ease, one Dundee expert has said.
But Professor Angela Daly said the current technology available to consumers means such weapons may pose more risk to the person firing them.
The Dundee University academic was speaking after it was revealed police seized a 3D firearm in Tayside in May last year.
Police Scotland confirmed two such weapons had been identified, with the second recovered in Argyll and Bute.
Prof Daly, a legal academic and expert in the regulation of digital technology, has published research on 3D printed weapons.
While producing such a weapon with a three-dimensional printer requires some skill, experts say it can be done with relative ease.
How easily could someone print a 3D gun?
In 2013, one US-based website attracted controversy after publishing plans which would allow anyone with a desktop 3D printer to produce one of the firearms.
Basic 3D printers can be bought online for less than £400, with more advanced machines costing as much as £20,000.
Prof Daly said: “There are files available online, not even in particularly inaccessible places.
“There are many different kinds of 3D printing technologies. There are very advanced technologies but they remain quite expensive.
“The 3D printers orientated at the consumer market don’t have amazing functionality, but it is improving.
“There have been issues with 3D printed guns blowing up in the face of the [person firing it].
“But the prices have come down, and that’s the point at which it becomes more concerning about the possibility of using more widely available machines to make gun parts.”
If more cases begin to emerge, Prof Daly said it will be important for the public to be given more details to understand the risk.
She told The Courier: “One question I always have when it comes to reports of police finding 3D printed guns is how they did they know where to look in the first place?
“Are they finding them because they are looking for them, or are they looking for drugs or stolen property and finding them?
“That raises questions about those who, if they exist, could be doing it under the radar.”
Black market guns easier to obtain
But Prof Daly cautioned that anyone looking to obtain a firearm illegally could, she believes, still buy a traditional gun more easily on the black market.
The police are also able to monitor the technology, she said, and could do so during the general monitoring of illegal activities already taking place online.
Owning or producing a 3D printed weapon is illegal in the UK and controlled under existing firearms legislation.
Prof Daly said: “The police can and do monitor these activities online.
“It will be in the same way they monitor other illegal behaviour, particularly when it comes to serious crime, terrorism and so on.
“I would imagine 3D printed guns and files are monitored in that way as well.”
Conversation