By CLAUDIA LAUER, Associated Press

As police departments around the country report a surge in 3D-printed firearms turning up at crime scenes, gun safety advocates and law enforcement officials are warning that a new generation of untraceable weapons could soon eclipse the “ghost guns” that have already flooded U.S. streets.

At a summit in New York City on Thursday, the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety will bring together policymakers, academics, 3D-printing industry leaders and law enforcement officials to confront the growing challenge. They fear that as the printers become cheaper and more sophisticated — and blueprints for gun parts spread rapidly online — the U.S. could be on the brink of another wave of unregulated, homemade weapons that evade serial-number tracking and background checks.

Numbers collected by Everytown from about two dozen police departments show how quickly the problem is growing: A little over 30 3D-printed guns were recovered in 2020. By 2024, that figure had climbed above 300. While still a fraction of the tens of thousands of firearms seized each year by the nation’s nearly 18,000 police departments, the spike mirrors the early trajectory of ghost guns — build-it-yourself weapons assembled from kits that for years eluded federal regulation.

“We are now starting to see what kind of feels very familiar,” said Nick Suplina, senior vice president of law and policy at Everytown. “It’s now at a small number of recoveries in certain major cities, such that it’s doubling or tripling year over year. We’re seeing this very familiar rate of growth and that’s why we’re getting this group together to discuss how to stop it.”

Ghost guns, provided by the New York City Police Department, are displayed in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, in New York, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives imposed new rules in 2022 requiring serial numbers, background checks and age verification for ghost-gun kits, regulations upheld by the Supreme Court earlier this year. Lawsuits and state-level bans eventually pushed Polymer80, once the leading manufacturer of those kits, out of business in 2024.

But 3D-printed weapons present a thornier problem. They aren’t manufactured or sold through the firearms industry, and neither 3D-printer companies nor the cloud-based platforms that host gun blueprints fall under the ATF’s authority. That leaves much of the prevention work to voluntary action and new legislation.

In addition to seeking industry self regulations, the summit aims to bring together academics and policymakers to talk about possible legislative ways to address the issue such as creating statutes to criminalize manufacturing ghost guns or selling blueprints.

In New York, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has pressed printer manufacturers and online platforms to take down gun designs and add safeguards against misuse. His office recently asked YouTube to remove a tutorial on printing a gun that a suspect said he found while watching a Call of Duty demonstration.

″So we reached out to YouTube and got their policies updated,” Bragg said. “If we were just prosecuting gun possessions rather than thinking about how to prevent these guns from getting printed and proactively talking to these companies, then we would be sorely behind the curve.”

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A major digital design platform also agreed to implement a detection and removal program earlier this year after Bragg’s office found numerous gun blueprints being shared and available for download on its site.

Both Everytown and Bragg said companies have been receptive. Some printer makers have introduced firmware that recognizes gun part shapes and blocks the machines from producing them, an approach that advocates compare to safeguards added decades ago to prevent color printers from copying currency.

John Amin, founder and CEO of Spanish company Print&Go, said he became fascinated with 3D printing when he was an engineering student. He voluntarily implemented a series of checks to prevent illegal weapons from being made including human oversight and automated detections.

“We must focus on curbing misuse, not demonizing the tool. And we already have powerful ways to do just that,” Amin said.

By CHRISTINE FERNANDO, Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) — Federal immigration officers in the Chicago area will be required to wear body cameras, a judge said Thursday after seeing tear gas and other aggressive steps used against protesters.

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U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis said she was a “little startled” after seeing TV images of clashes between agents and the public during President Donald Trump’s administration’s immigration crackdown.

“I live in Chicago if folks haven’t noticed,” she said. “And I’m not blind, right?”

Community efforts to oppose U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have ramped up in the nation’s third-largest city, where neighborhood groups have assembled to monitor ICE activity and film incidents involving agents. More than 1,000 immigrants have been arrested since September.

Separately, the Trump administration has tried to deploy National Guard troops, but the strategy was halted last week by a different judge.

Ellis last week said agents in the area must wear badges, and she banned them from using certain riot control techniques against peaceful protesters and journalists.

“I’m having concerns about my order being followed,” the judge said.

“I am adding that all agents who are operating in Operation Midway Blitz are to wear body-worn cameras, and they are to be on,” Ellis said, referring to the government’s name for the crackdown.

U.S. Justice Department attorney Sean Skedzielewski laid blame with “one-sided and selectively edited media reports.” He also said it wouldn’t be possible to immediately distribute cameras.

“I understand that. I would not be expecting agents to wear body-worn cameras they do not have,” Ellis said, adding that the details could be worked out later.

She said the field director of the enforcement effort must appear in court Monday.

In 2024, Immigration and Customs Enforcement began deploying about 1,600 body cameras to agents assigned to Enforcement and Removal Operations.

At the time, officials said they would be provided to agents in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Washington, Buffalo, New York and Detroit. Other Homeland Security Department agencies require some agents to wear cameras. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has released body-camera video when force has been used by its agents or officers.

The 32-team, Class 6A Minnesota high school football bracket was released on Thursday.

The quadrants play out like sections, with the Quadrant 1 and Quadrant 2 winners meeting in one semifinal at U.S. Bank Stadium, and the Quadrant 3 and Quadrant 4 winners playing in the other.

Rosemount, Forest Lake, Centennial and defending champion Maple Grove are the No. 1 seeds.

The first round begins on Oct. 24, with the state title game slated for Nov. 21 at U.S. Bank Stadium.

Here are the first-round matchups, listed by quadrant:

Quadrant 1

White Bear Lake running back Easton Miles (4) runs past Farmington linebacker Max Blandin (11) with the help of tight end Mac Wickland (7) tries to blockduring the second half of the game at White Bear Lake High School in White Bear Lake Friday, Sept. 12, 2025. Farmington won 22-6. (Craig Lassig / Special to the Pioneer Press)

No. 1 Rosemount vs. No. 8 Park

No. 4 Osseo vs. No. 5 St. Michael-Albertville

No. 3 Prior Lake vs. No. 6 White Bear Lake

No. 2 Minnetonka vs. No. 7 Anoka

Quadrant 2

No. 1 Forest Lake vs. No. 8 Coon Rapids

No. 4 Edina vs. No. 5 Farmington

No. 3 Eden Prairie vs. No. 6 Lakeville North

No. 2 Champlin Park vs. No. 7 Roseville

Quadrant 3

No. 1 Centennial vs. No. 8 Hopkins

No. 4 Shakopee vs. No. 5 Stillwater

No. 3 Blaine vs. No. 6 Moorhead

No. 2 Woodbury vs. No. 7 Eagan

Quadrant 4

No. 1 Maple Grove vs. No. 8 Eastview

No. 4 East Ridge vs. No. 5 Andover

No. 3 Mounds View vs. No. 6 Rogers

No. 2 Lakeville South vs. No. 7 Wayzata

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By GEOFF MULVIHILL and MORGAN LEE, Associated Press

A federal program that provides food assistance to 40 million low-income people could be at risk in November if the government shutdown isn’t resolved by then.

And in at least some places, new applications for the program are not being approved.

But there’s still a lot of uncertainty about the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, known as SNAP or food stamps, a vestige of a previous incarnation of food aid.

Here’s a look at where things stand.

The food aid program benefits 1 in 8 people in the US

SNAP is a major piece of the nation’s social safety net, touching nearly 1 in 8 people in the country each month. They receive benefits on prepaid cards that they can use for groceries.

The other big pieces of the safety net — Social Security and Medicaid — are expected to continue paying benefits during the shutdown.

But because of the way it’s funded, SNAP is vulnerable.

In the accounting year that ended on Sept. 30, 2024, SNAP cost just over $100 billion, including the half of state administrative costs covered by federal taxpayers. It provided an average of $187 a month to 41.7 million people.

States were warned about November benefits

When the government shut down on Oct. 1 amid a congressional budget impasse, a few things were clear about SNAP.

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One was that benefits would continue through October.

The other was that it was unclear after that.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the program, sent letters on Oct. 10 to the state agencies that administer it telling them not to send certain files to the contractors that would clear the way for the EBT cards to be loaded at the start of November.

Different states send that information at different points in the month.

Carolyn Vega, the associate director of policy analysis at Share Our Strength, an anti-poverty advocacy group, said that pausing sending the information now doesn’t mean that cards can’t be loaded next month, with or without resumption of government operations.

But it’s not good news, either. “The question marks are trending in a bad direction for November,” she said.

Finding money during the shutdown could be a challenge

A budget agreement that ends the shutdown would also restore SNAP funding.

Short of that, Vega said, it’s possible state or federal governments could free up money to bridge the gap. She said that in a 2015 shutdown, similar warnings were released and then reversed.

But because of the amount of money involved, she noted, that’s a challenge. General SNAP costs far more, for instance, than the Special Supplemental Nutritional Program for Women, Infants and Children that helps 6 million low-income mothers, young children and expectant parents to purchase nutritional staples. President Donald Trump’s administration has shored up that program — for now — with $300 million.

Doing the same for the bigger program could cost about $8 billion a month.

And at tens to hundreds of millions of dollars monthly per state, finding state money to cover the costs could also be difficult.

States are figuring out how to react

More than 1 in 5 New Mexico residents receive SNAP benefits, at a cost of about $90 million a month.

The idea of those benefits disappearing is raising alarms in New Mexico, where more than 1 in 5 people relies on them. “I think it’s direct harm to New Mexicans, to New Mexico’s communities and New Mexico’s economy that is unprecedented,” said state Rep. Nathan Small, a Democrat and chair of the main budget-writing committee.

But he said it’s too early to say whether New Mexico might find options to mitigate any harm if the benefits are cut off.

“We’re following up,” Charles Sallee, director of the Legislature’s budget and accountability office, told lawmakers at a hearing Wednesday, “to verify whether food stamps is really out of money or if this is just a tactic that the administration is playing in the overall negotiation.”

Minnesota’s Department of Children, Youth, and Families told counties and Native American tribes not to approve new SNAP applications after Wednesday. And the state was preparing to tell recipients on Oct. 21 that benefits would not be issued for November, barring any changes.

“An interruption in receiving food assistance can be very disruptive – even dire – for the lives of Minnesota’s families,” Tikki Brown, the department commissioner, told local officials in the update.

Other SNAP changes are starting to kick in

The government shutdown isn’t the only development that could cut access to SNAP.

The broad policy and tax law that Congress passed and Trump signed in July also calls for changes to the program. Adults with children from 14 to 17 will no longer be exempt from a work requirement to receive benefits, and neither will people ages 55 through 64.

Those policies are in effect now, and some people could begin losing coverage around the start of January.

Another change in the law will come in future years. Starting in October 2026, states are to pick up three-fourths of the administrative costs. The next year, states with higher benefit error rates will be required to pay some of the benefit costs.

While it’s possible Congress could modify some of those policies, resuming government operations alone won’t change them.

Associated Press reporter Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis contributed to this article.