The World’s Most Popular 3D-Printed Gun Was Designed by an Aspiring Terrorist

4chan is ephemeral (posts are routinely culled) and supposedly anonymous (the default sanction mounting for anyone posting is simply “Anonymous”). However, the website inserts a unsocial drawstring of letters and numbers that instrumentality with each idiosyncratic successful immoderate 1 thread—as a mode of keeping way of who’s who successful a conversation, portion maintaining the veneer of anonymity.

This meant that, utilizing the 4chan archiving tract 4plebs.org, I was capable to way @thereal_JacobK’s different comments successful the thread, revealing hitherto chartless details astir his life, including his vexation with surviving successful Germany, his tendency to determination to the US, and his emotion for the Second Amendment. But possibly astir strikingly, helium described himself arsenic an incel—the word utilized by the misogynistic online assemblage who specify themselves arsenic “involuntary celibates.”

Revealing the Personality Behind the Gun

The mode Jacob D wrote, anonymously, successful that 4chan thread was besides revealing. He lone capitalized the connection “I” astatine the commencement of a sentence—never aft that. And helium ever inserted a abstraction earlier an exclamation oregon question mark, which isn’t emblematic for Germans.

Analyzing these penning habits is the domain of forensic linguistics, made celebrated for its usage successful the apprehension of the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski. These stylistic features meant I could way much of his comments successful different speech threads—with his repetition usage of the aforesaid images sometimes giving an other hint to threads helium had been in.

Eventually, I discovered threads successful which Jacob D had uploaded photos of himself, including 1 wherever helium showed his face. In portion by utilizing a facial designation platform, I was past capable to observe his aged SoundCloud and Couchsurfing profiles—in the latter, helium said helium planned to question to the US, “the state which fascinated maine since my teens,” earlier helium joined the German military.

And successful some of these profiles, helium revealed his existent name: Jakob Duygu.

Ultimately, I person been capable to track hundreds of supposedly anonymous posts that Duygu posted connected 4chan and different connection boards implicit the years. The FGC-9’s decorator wrote astir his beingness successful Germany, his clip successful the Bundeswehr (German equipped forces), and his loneliness and despair astatine being an incel. They amusement him arsenic a complex, volatile, obsessive, and tragic person. And they besides uncover immoderate extremist ideas.

The quality betwixt these comments and those helium made publically successful interviews (using his JStark1809 pseudonym) was striking. In interviews, helium spoke astir the request to support escaped code and quality rights. He invoked the illustration of the genocide of European Jews successful the Holocaust oregon the Uyghur radical successful China arsenic arguments for wherefore radical request to person firearms, and wherefore helium created the FGC-9.

But erstwhile you look astatine his anonymous comments, a antithetic representation emerges. Far from being a idiosyncratic acrophobic astir quality rights, his words were often xenophobic, racist, and antisemitic. And this wasn’t exclusive to 4chan, which has a peculiarly offensive, obnoxious civilization wherever possibly not everything should beryllium taken astatine look value.