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By Noel Young, Correspondent

December 20, 2012 | 3 min read

Following the Newtown school massacre, the 3D-printing firm Makerbot has deleted blueprints for gun components from Thingiverse, its website that hosts 3D-printable files submitted by users.

One of these is of a vital part for the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle used by the Newtown killer.

A test of the gun assembled including the printed part is shown in the video here. It broke after six rounds and is said to be "not recommended."

Thingiverse has long banned designs for weapons, reports Forbes magazine, but has rarely enforced the rule. Then in the last few days, the company wrote to users saying their software models for gun parts were being purged from the site.

When Forbes writer Andy Greenberg checked Thingiverse earlier this month for gun components, he says it was easy enough to find firearm parts such as the “lower receivers” for several models of semiautomatic rifles and handguns.

The lower receiver is the the “body” of a gun, and its most regulated component.

So 3D-printing that piece at home and attaching other parts ordered by mail might allow a lethal weapon to be obtained without any legal barriers or identification.

One correspondent whose experiments with a 3D-printed AR-15 lower receiver drew attention to 3D-printable weapons earlier this year, thought the removal of the files was linked with Newtown.

"It seems pretty clear that the tragic shooting last week is the impetus for removal of some designs on Thingiverse,” he wrote to Forbes.

Makerbot made no mention of the Newtown shootings in a statement sent to Greenberg about the gun takedowns.

“MakerBot’s focus is to empower the creative process and make things for good,” wrote Makerbot spokesperson Jenifer Howard.

“Thingiverse has been going through an evolution recently and has had numerous changes and updates. Reviewing some of the content that violates Thingiverse’s Terms of Service is part of this process.”

A group named Defense Distributed posted the YouTube video seen here of its first experiment with an AR-15 built from a 3D-printed lower receiver in December . The 3D printed piece broke after six shots.

Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson has now said the group plans to create its own site for hosting “fugitive” 3D printable gun files.

Wilson said, “The Internet routes around censorship.The project becomes more vital.”