Winnipeg Man Gets 12 Years For Making, Trafficking 3D-Printed"Ghost Guns"

A Winnipeg man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for manufacturing and selling so-called "ghost guns," which he made with a 3D printer.

In early April, 24-year-old Blake Ellison-Crate was sentenced in Manitoba provincial court after pleading guilty to 13 charges, including charges of illegal possession of restricted firearms, using false identities to unlawfully obtain firearms and manufacturing firearms. He was arrested after an investigation that began in 2021, when the Canadian Border Services Agency found a parcel mailed to him from the US. That parcel contained parts for the manufacture of his 3D-printed firearms.

Over the following months, Ellison-Crate continued his firearms manufacturing; after an initial arrest and release, he continued his activities despite a court order not to possess firearms. Even after his post-arrest incarceration in June of 2022, a jailhouse phone recording revealed Ellison-Crate continuing to coordinate illegal firearms manufacturing and distribution through a business partner. On that same call, Ellison-Crate also claimed to be the manufacturer of a firearm used in a high-profile shooting at the Red River Ex in June of 2022, the CBC reports.

Ellison-Crate actually received 44 years in jail as a result of his guilty pleas, but was allowed to serve his sentences concurrently, which reduced the timespan to 12 years minus time already served. Despite the reduction in total time, Ellison-Crate's sentence is thought to be the longest ever handed out in Canada for illegal 3D gun printing. At the time of his arrest, Winnipeg police told CityNews "there’s a flood of 3D-guns entering into the city to make up for the gun shortage we have in the city right now." Now, the courts have sent a strong message about those illegal firearms, but the demand is still there, despite ever-growing restrictions on law-abiding firearms owners.