JUDGE STOPS INFO ON 3D GUN PRINTING
Nonprofit says it’s ‘disappointed’
A federal judge blocked the public availability of instructions for printing guns, just hours before the documents were set to be published.
WASHINGTON — A 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. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D, on Tuesday also issued a cease-anddesist 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 nonprofit 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.
The legislative and legal maneuvers aimed to prevent Defense Distributed, a Texas nonprofit, from posting the schematics for 3D-printed guns on the internet. The firearms, which are mostly made of plastic, are untraceable because they do not have serial numbers, would not require a background check to print and are easily destroyed after use. The available blueprints include guides for making guns akin to assault-style rifles like AR-15s and AR-10s, a pistol called a “Liberator” and a Ruger 10/22.
The technology could herald an era of DIY guns that can be produced — and amassed — in secret.
The Pennsylvania attorney general also sued Defense Distributed on Sunday and the company agreed to temporarily block Pennsylvania users from its website.