Thank the Lord: U.S. Judge Blocks Release of 3D-Printed Gun Blueprints | lovebscott.com

Thank the Lord: U.S. Judge Blocks Release of 3D-Printed Gun Blueprints

In this May 10, 2013, photo, Cody Wilson holds what he calls a Liberator pistol that was completely made on a 3-D-printer at his home in Austin, Texas. Eight states filed suit Monday, July 30, 2018, against the Trump administration over its decision to allow a Texas company to publish downloadable blueprints for a 3D-printed gun, contending the hard-to-trace plastic weapons are a boon to terrorists and criminals and threaten public safety. (Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via AP, File)

Did you know that with a few thousand dollars to spare you can buy a 3D printer, download blueprints, and print fully-functional guns from the comfort of your home?

A website called Defense Distributed had plans to publicly release downloadable design files for 3D-printed handguns and semiautomatic rifles this week, but thankfully a federal judge halted the release with a temporary restraining order.

via Complex:

U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik in Seattle granted the restraining order after eight attorneys general argued that allowing the spread of downloadable weapons would have posed a national security threat. “There is a possibility of irreparable harm because of the way these guns can be made,” he explained.

“In a major victory for common sense and public safety, a federal judge just granted our request for a nationwide temporary restraining order—blocking the Trump administration from allowing the distribution of materials to easily 3-D print guns,” New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood said after the decision was revealed. “As we argued in the suit we filed yesterday, it is—simply—crazy to give criminals the tools to build untraceable, undetectable 3-D printed guns at the touch of a button. Yet that’s exactly what the Trump administration decided to allow.”

Tuesday’s restraining order came after Defense Distributed had agreed to a settlement with the federal government in June, allowing them to follow through on their controversial business plan. At the time, they celebrated with the statement, “The age of the downloadable gun formally begins.”

The company was getting ready to make the downloadable gun files available online Wednesday, but Lasnik’s decision halted those plans. In response, the attorney for Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson said, “We were disappointed in the ruling and view it as a massive prior restraint of free speech.”

Tuesday morning, Donald Trump weighed in on the issue and tweeted that he thought selling the guns to the public “doesn’t seem to make much sense.”

As the Washington Post points out, the plastic guns are untraceable because they don’t have serial numbers, wouldn’t require a background check to print, and could be easy to destroy after using. The open-source gun distribution model proposed by Defense Distributed could present a dangerous new problem for a country already struggling with gun control issues.

What’s interesting is that there have been 3D printed guns + blueprints around for the last few years. America already has a gun problem, the last thing we need is access to guns on demand.

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