Article: https://tg.la7.it/cronaca/bolzano-coltelli-stampante-3d-a-scuola-denunciato-minore-26-01-2026-251562
Local student arrested for ‘manufacturing weapons.’ In reality, he printed some PLA shivs that would probably shatter if they hit a piece of parmesan cheese. The police seized the printer like it was a meth lab. 10/10 for the dramatic crime scene photo, though.
(Backstory: a few weeks ago a student in another city/school was stabbed with a (iron) knife and died so now politicians need to show that zero tolerance policies are successful.)
I don’t get it, are knives illegal in Italy? What if I want to cut my spaghetti?
What if I want to cut my spaghetti?
This is the really weird thing. If these knives were made of metal and in a kitchen drawer, nobody would think of them as being weapons. But since they are 3d printed, that’s novel enough to warrant some panic or something…
Not sure how rules are in Italy, but where I live “switchblades” and other one-hand operated collapsible knives are illegal.
Afaik, all single hand operation deployment knives are illegal in Italy. It’s somewhat of a nonsensical rule when there are teenagers stabbing themselves with kitchen knives, but still…
You can make surprisingly sharp objects, I once cut myself with my printed bed-scraper by accident.
These printed knives can absolutely also be used to hurt/kill someone, if you wanted to…like all type of knives and basic cutlery really…these being an illegal type is the trigger here I believe.
Let’s just hope that the politicians never realize the danger of sharpened sticks or they might ban trees and bushes too.
I could probably poke out some eyes with my knitting needles, glad nobody banned those (yet)!
But they didn’t confiscate his kitchen knives?
Those probably have serial numbers and a whole tracking system lol
Did they take away his rocks too?
That’s performative. Sucks to be the student who will have his life ruined to be made “an example” out of.
he printed some PLA shivs that would probably shatter if they hit a piece of parmesan cheese.
How big of a piece of parmesan are we talking? Ever tried to cut into a wheel of cold parmesan? It’s pretty tough. Meatbags are a lot less tough.
That being said, we learned how to make knives by smashing a couple of rocks together like a thousand years ago, this ain’t stopping nobody.
I can confirm it’s much harder to stab a wheel of parmesan cheese than a person, but at least the cheese doesn’t scream
Ok, I’m stabbing the cheese wrong then I guess.
Hopefully someday these places make murder illegal so people can’t kill others without violating the law.
Wow. Going after letter openers now, are they?
People who 3D print anime weapons replicas:
Poor guy even got his ams with four rolls of pla confiscated ☠️
I can’t imagine getting a search warrant for toys in a teenager room.
Those knives sure are dangerous
Hope they will soon ban these too and put their manufacturer in jail:
