Southern Illinois man who printed unregistered 3D guns sentenced to 8
years
[September 12, 2026]
By Molly Parker
BENTON — A federal judge on Thursday imposed an eight-year prison
sentence on a man who prosecutors described as running a “mini gun
factory” out of his southern Illinois home using 3D printers and a Ghost
Gunner milling machine.
Yaroslav Vishnevski, 33, of Harrisburg, was found guilty in a June jury
trial on five federal gun charges related to weapons police confiscated
from his home during a May 2024 raid. He plans to appeal the conviction.
Homemade 3D-printed guns have drawn national attention for adding to the
proliferation of “ghost guns,” firearms that can be difficult to trace
because they lack serial numbers.
In response, many states, including Illinois, have sought to crack down
in different ways, such as outlawing possession of a 3D-printed gun
without a serial number that can be traced if it’s used in a crime. Some
states have also started placing restrictions on the digital files used
to produce them, and the 3D printers and milling machines themselves.
These efforts are pushing into relatively new legal territory in an
already complex and shifting landscape of state and federal gun laws.
Vishnevski was tried in federal court, and federal law generally does
not prohibit people from making firearms for their own use, including
with 3D printers.
But certain weapons regulated under the National Firearms Act must be
registered in advance of possession with the National Firearms
Registration and Transfer Record, and in some cases taxed. Vishnevski
was convicted of illegally possessing unregistered guns and silencers
that fell under those requirements. He was also convicted of possessing
a short-barreled shotgun with an obliterated serial number.
Stephen Richards, Vishnevski’s attorney, asked the judge to treat
Vishnevski, who had no prior criminal record, “with justice and a bit of
mercy” and urged him to sentence Vishnevski to time served and
probation. Vishnevski had spent 11 months in jail prior to his
sentencing hearing.
Richards said his client believed strongly in his Second Amendment
rights and had no intention of causing anyone harm, even if some might
find his extensive gun collection “a little bit nutty.” He noted that
Vishnevski had no history of drug use, wasn’t an armed robber and had
never held up a bank with the guns he made. Instead, he described the
charges as arising from technical violations of specific registration
and taxation requirements that “may or may not be constitutional.”
But Tom Leggans, an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of
Illinois, urged for a stronger sentence.
“This defendant has just doggedly refused to accept that he had anything
to do with the predicament in which he finds himself,” Leggans said.
Leggans said there are plenty of avenues for people who believe the
government’s gun restrictions are wrong to challenge them. They can
participate in peaceful protests, petition their governmental
representatives, and file civil lawsuits that challenge gun laws. But,
he said, people cannot simply decide not to follow the laws they
disagree with.
Leggans’ comments in court echoed those previously issued in a press
release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of
Illinois.
“The real world contains nuance, and two things can be true at the same
time: We staunchly defend the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding
Americans, while simultaneously recognizing that machine guns,
short-barreled rifles, silencers illegally imported from China, and
untraceable ghost guns present obvious dangers,” U.S. Attorney Steven D.
Weinhoeft said in a statement.
Judge expresses his concern
The raid of Vishnevski’s home came after customs officials in New York
contacted the Illinois State Police Firearms Investigations Unit,
notifying the agency they had intercepted a package containing two
silencers mailed from China to Vishnevski. Ryan Propst, an ISP special
agent with the Firearms Investigations Unit, testified during
Vishnevski’s trial that a search warrant of his home was executed after
Vishnevski accepted the package, delivered under surveillance.
Vishnevski did not testify at trial. But he addressed the judge in a
short plea before sentencing, saying, “I have wronged no one. I have
hurt no one. That is it.”
He previously told CNI that he is a survivalist who believes in
self-sufficiency and emergency preparedness. He said he’d ordered a
large number of gun-making components because he feared the government
would soon crack down on people buying them. He said he’d never sold any
of the weapons he made, nor committed any crimes with them, and did not
face such charges.
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Police raided the Harrisburg home of Yaroslav Vishnevski, right, in
May 2024 after customs officials in New York intercepted a package
addressed to him that prosecutors said contained two silencers.
 U.S. District Judge Phil Gilbert noted that many
mass shooters do not have criminal records before carrying out their
attacks. He questioned what purpose Vishnevski had for “hoarding
guns” and pointed to medical records showing a history of
depression, anxiety and panic attacks, conditions which Gilbert
noted appear in the medical histories of many mass shooters.
Gilbert repeatedly stressed that he was not saying
Vishnevski intended to become a mass shooter. But he said he
remained concerned by his mental health history coupled with the
evidence presented in the case.
During a two-day trial this summer, prosecutors showed jurors some
of the various weapons Vishnevski manufactured using 3D printers, a
milling machine and drill press with firearm-specific jigs, finished
with a level of craftsmanship that made them difficult to
distinguish at a glance from commercially manufactured assault
weapons. Prosecutors also displayed photographs of nearly 80 pounds
of aluminum shavings that officers hauled from his home during the
May 2024 raid.
“I’m not saying you were on the road to being a mass shooter, but
you check all the boxes,” Gilbert told him shortly before imposing
the eight-year sentence.
Vishnevski pushed back on that characterization. He told the judge
he was not mentally ill and said any situational anxiety or
depression he experienced stemmed from the federal case against him.
He said his panic attacks were limited to a brief period while he
was attending medical school, which ceased after he dropped out.
After the trial, Vishnevski sent a text message to Capitol News
Illinois from the Benton jail saying he did not have a statement to
provide and was “mainly thinking about how it affected my mother and
the rest of my family.”
His mother, who traveled to southern Illinois from
her home near Boston, watched Thursday’s sentencing hearing from a
wooden bench just a few feet behind him. At one point, she stood,
seemingly prepared to make a plea to the judge while fighting back
tears, before Gilbert instructed her that she had to remain seated.
After the hearing, she cried in the hallway as Vishnevski’s
attorneys walked her through what the sentence meant for her son.
Afterward, she texted a CNI reporter that she found the judge’s
statements comparing her son to mass shooters offensive.
“It’s like comparing you to Lady Gaga. You like [to] sing, but you
never be like her,” she wrote. “Bravo America! Bravo to liars, bravo
you ruined my son and my life!”
In his texts after the trial, Vishnevski said the judge’s statements
“comparing me to some homicidal maniac” would likely help him in the
long term as he appealed the case. He also said his medical records
do not support those statements.
An immigrant from Ukraine
Vishnevski moved from Ukraine to Greece at age 6 and immigrated to
the United States with his parents at age 7. He is now a U.S.
citizen.
He graduated magna cum laude from Boston University in 2014 with a
degree in biochemistry and molecular biology.
Vishnevski said he later completed Air Force officer training and
enrolled at the St. Louis University School of Medicine under orders
to serve as an Air Force physician after graduation. He left the
program before earning his medical degree and was later transferred
to the Individual Ready Reserve.
Vishnevski and his wife, now divorced, moved to Harrisburg in 2020.
He said they were attracted by the opportunities and freedoms he
believed the small town could offer them.
Before Thursday’s sentencing, Vishnevski told CNI in a lengthy phone
call from jail that he did not regret taking his case to trial. He
said he believed it was necessary to stand up for the Second
Amendment rights he believes in.
“Really, I don’t feel like I deserve any time whatsoever for these
changes. If anybody is the victim in this situation, it’s me,”
Vishnevski said.
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