Judge blocks 3D-printed guns
A federal judge yesterday stopped the release of blueprints to make untraceable and undetectable 3D-printed plastic guns as President Donald Trump questioned whether his administration should have agreed to allow the plans to be posted online.
The company behind the plans, Austin, Texas-based Defence Distributed, had reached a settlement with the federal government in June allowing it to make the plans for the guns available for download today.
The restraining order from US District Judge Robert Lasnik in Seattle puts that plan on hold for now. ‘‘There is a possibility of irreparable harm because of the way these guns can be made,’’ he said.
Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson called the ruling ‘‘a complete, total victory.’’
‘‘We were asking for a nationwide temporary restraining order putting a halt to this outrageous decision by the federal government to allow these 3D downloadable guns to be available around our country and around the world. He granted that relief,’’ Ferguson said. ‘‘That is significant.’’
Eight Democratic attorneys general had filed a lawsuit seeking to block the settlement. They also sought the restraining order, arguing the 3D guns would be a safety risk. Congressional Democrats have urged President Donald Trump to reverse the decision to publish the plans. Trump said that he’s ‘‘looking into’’ the idea, saying making 3D plastic guns available to the public ‘‘doesn’t seem to make much sense!’’
Trump tweeted that he has already spoken with the National Rifle Association about the downloadable directions a Texas company wants to provide for people to make 3D-printed guns. The guns are made of a hard plastic and are simple to assemble, easy to conceal and difficult to trace.
‘‘We don’t agree with President Trump very much,’’ Washington state Assistant Attorney General Jeff Rupert, ‘‘but when he tweeted ‘this doesn’t make much sense,’ that’s something we agree with.’’
After a years-long court battle, the State Department in late June settled the case against Defence Distributed. The settlement, which took gun-control advocates by surprise, allowed the company to resume posting blueprints for the hard-plastic guns at the end of July. Those plans were put on hold by the Seattle judge’s decision.
The company’s website had said downloads would begin today, but blueprints for at least one gun – a plastic pistol called the Liberator – have been posted on the site since last week. A lawyer for the company said he didn’t know how many blueprints had been downloaded. –