The Trump administration urged a federal judge not to stand in the way of public access to blueprints for making guns using 3-D printers, arguing that there is no legal basis for the State Department to block availability of the instructions on the internet, and no need for such regulation, Bloomberg reported.
The government’s position would allow people to make plastic guns at home, bypassing stores and rules and background checks. However, nineteen states and the District of Columbia are suing the administration, arguing the downloadable firearms will be untraceable and easily available to criminals and terrorists.
According to the State Department, the states “misunderstand” limits on its authority to prevent the harm they warn against, and unless the technology or weapons at issue pose a threat to national security by falling into the hands of foreigners, it’s up to other federal agencies and states to regulate them.
“The domestic harms about which plaintiffs are allegedly concerned are not properly regulated by the department under current law,” the government said in a court filing.
On June 29, the State Department arrived at a settlement allowing Austin-based Defense Distributed to post instructions for printing firearm parts. The group’s founder, Cody Wilson, argued in court that the First Amendment’s free-speech guarantee gave him the right to upload the computer code containing gun-printing instructions, Bloomberg explains.
According to Wired, the new technology is completely undermining the way that traditional guns are regulated, and could overturn the nation’s longstanding political compromise around them. The news outlet notes that while the hype is present, 3D printing is still a relatively immature manufacturing technology, and it won’t be making a modern, repeating firearm any time soon.
The only reason 3D printing is in the spotlight is because Defense Distributed created a toy 3D-printed product that could fire one round. However, leading 3D printing companies are trying to get ahead of the issue of 3D gun blueprints, and some companies are using gun-blocking software to deter people from printing functional guns, NPR adds.
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