U.S. judge blocks posting of plans for 3D-printed guns

11th-hour temporary restraining order blocks online publishing of blueprints to make firearms

A U.S. federal judge has blocked the public availability of blueprints that provide instructions for making guns using 3D printers just hours before the documents were expected to be published online.

U.S. District Court Judge Robert Lasnik granted a temporary restraining order on Tuesday night barring a trove of downloadable information about creating the do-it-yourself weapons.

Eight attorneys general and the District of Columbia argued the instructions posed a national security threat. Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday also issued a ceaseand-desist order against the man who was scheduled to post them online.

“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 3D-print guns,” New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood said in a statement. “As we argued in the suit we filed yesterday, it is — simply — crazy to give criminals the tools to build untraceable, undetectable 3D-printed guns at the touch of a button. Yet that’s exactly what the Trump administration decided to allow.”

Josh Blackman, an attorney who represents Cody Wilson, the founder of the non-profit that planned to post the instructions, said the restraining order violates protected First Amendment rights.

“We were disappointed in the ruling and view it as a massive prior restraint of free speech,” Blackman said.