"This is how we do it in the USA."

American Made

Americans flocking to Chinese social media app RedNote have quickly made themselves at home, asserting themselves through one of the oldest of Yankee online traditions: gun vids.

But these are no ordinary range reels. Almost overnight, a new niche of Western users has cropped up on the platform, posting photos of colorful 3D-printed rifles, clips of themselves spraying ammo from plastic SMGs, and timelapse videos of 3D printers spitting out gun  receivers. Others link to infamous ghost gun websites, like The Gatolog or the Black Lotus Coalition.

One user, YZY Prints, spells it all out in his bio: "An American here to show the Chinese how to build guns." Though the total number of users pushing the American craft seems relatively small — it's still early, in the grand scheme of social media trends — a post on X-formerly-Twitter by the same user points to a loose organizing strategy: "Us Americans have a moral obligation to download RedNote and show the Chinese how to build unserialized ghost guns."

While the sale of ammo necessary to shoot 3D-printed guns is heavily restricted in China, at least a few freedom-loving Americans have answered YZY's call, like one who posts glamor shots of his purple and orange FGC-9 — the world's most common 3D-printed gun — and his open-bolt .22 caliber rifle.

Another user posted a video captioned "This is how we do it in the USA," showing himself free firing his fully automatic "Detroit street sweeper" into the woods. When one Chinese user asked "what type of gun is?" he was more than happy to oblige: "Decker 380. More info can be found at Black Lotus Coalition."

Chinese Bought

Only time will tell what kind of a following this niche will attract, or how long Chinese censors will allow the content to stay up. The aforementioned YZY has already taken to X to brag that one of his 3D gun videos, masterfully titled "American gun Santa Claus," was flagged for illegal content.

"They have removed one of my videos already," he lamented. "I just appealed it. In Chinese. I don't speak Chinese. 2025 is great."

For their part, the platform's original netizens had posted their fair share of gun content long before Americans came flooding in. A quick survey shows a slickly dressed Chinese woman firing a bazooka, two Chinese tourists in Russia spraying AK-74Ms into the snow, and another Chinese enthusiast testing his newly modified AK-47 at a US gun range.

But while some Chinese citizens may share the American affinity for guns, it remains to be seen what response the disturbingly American ghost gun phenomenon will coax from Chinese authorities — as Americans wait for the faintest sign of regulation from their own.

More on 3D-printed guns: Cops Say CEO Shooter's Pistol and Silencer Were Both 3D-Printed


Share This Article