The Yokohama District Court on Monday sentenced a man in Japan to two years in prison for building functional guns using a 3D printer.

Yoshitomo Imura, a 28-year-old working at the Shonan Institute of Technology in Fujisawa, was found guilty by the court for building two guns with a 3D printer at his home in Kawasaki last year.

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Imura was arrested last May after authorities caught up with him after a YouTube video showed him test firing a homemade printed gun. The video showed a 3D printed gun holding six bullets.

"This has shown that anyone can illegally manufacture guns with a 3D printer, flaunting their knowledge and skill, and it is an offense to make our country's strict gun controls into a dead letter," said Judge Koji Inaba.

Imura reportedly used information from the Internet to construct the guns. He later made a video on the Internet describing in details how he built them.

Akira Noguchi, a defense lawyer, argued Imura wasn't aware his acts were illegal.

Reports claim authorities intend to use the sentence as an example to avert others from printing their own weapons in their homes.

Japan is known for its very strict gun laws. It was estimated that only a total of 15 people were murdered by guns in 2012.

Statistics published by the Guardian newspaper from the UK shows Japan had only 0.01 gun murders per year, while the US had 2.97.

Tags3D Printing, 3D-printer, gun, Kawasaki, Yokohama District Court, Yoshitomo Imura, Shonan Institute of Technology, Fujisawa, The Guardian