Top Texas leaders mum on 3D-printed guns
Commenting may be a no-win scenario for Abbott, Patrick, Cruz
Cody Wilson holds a 3D-printed gun. Most of the top state politicians have said nothing on either the guns or the legal battle to release blueprints to make them.
AUSTIN — Most of the top politicians in Texas said nothing publicly on Wednesday about an Austin-based nonprofit group’s legal battle over homemade guns that can be forged from plastic with a 3D printer.
Defense Distributed posted blueprints for the guns on the internet Tuesday, but it was ordered later in the day to take them down by a federal judge in Seattle. Attorneys general in eight states and the District of Columbia had filed suit, alleging that making the directions publicly available posed a national security risk. The judge’s decision sparked heated debate about the intersection of the First and Second amendments, public safety, and emerging technologies.
But while they are all vocal supporters of gun rights, Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and state Attorney General Ken Paxton declined to comment on the controversy over the do-it-yourself firearms — the second time this summer they have balked at taking sides on a national issue centered in Texas.
Abbott and Patrick also had little to say six weeks ago, when news broke that thousands of children had been separated from their families at the U.S. and Mexico border.
Paxton came closest to weighing in on 3D printer guns.
“We all want to keep guns out of the hands of terrorists and criminals, but we should handle this particular issue with the utmost care,” spokesman Marc Rylander said. “Policy choices like this one involve both the right to keep and bear arms and freedom of speech, and the people deserve an approach that protects both of those fundamental rights.”
Former University of Texas law school student Cody Wilson, 30, is founder of Defense Distributed and has been pushing for five years to publish blueprints for the weapons. He struck a deal with the Justice Department in June that allowed him to post them starting Wednesday, but that was halted when U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik issued a restraining order, saying “There is a possibility of irreparable harm because of the way these guns can be made.”
The guns have no serial numbers and cannot be spotted by some metal detectors, according to court documents filed by the states that oppose him. They are already illegal to manufacture, purchase or possess if they don’t trigger a metal detector. Inventor called ‘dangerous’
While top Republican officials in Texas were largely silent Wednesday about the 3D printed guns, President Donald Trump was questioning whether his administration should have agreed to let Wilson’s company post the blueprints online. Trump’s staff said the Justice Department never consulted with the president before making the deal.
Blueprints for at least one gun — a plastic pistol called the Liberator — had been posted on the company’s website since Friday. Although a lawyer for the company said he didn’t know how many blueprints had been downloaded since then, Wired Magazine reports blueprints for 10 guns total had been posted, garnering thousands of downloads before the restraining order.
That same magazine listed company founder Wilson as one of the 15 Most Dangerous People in the World in 2012. A year later, Wilson published blueprints for the guns which were downloaded more than 100,000 times before he was stopped by the Justice Department under President Barack Obama, according to the New York Times.
Wilson began trying to design a functional gun with a 3D printer when he was studying law at UT.
“I still believe in the rights to keep and bear arms, and I believe what I’m doing is a way of protecting them,” he told the Times.
He is also an avid defender of free speech rights.
By 2017, Wilson had created a crowdfunding site, Hatreon, that has been used by neo-Nazi groups removed from websites like PayPal. Hatreon was used by organizers of a white supremacist rally last year in Charlottesville, Va., according to the Times.
The NRA said in a statement that “anti-gun politicians” and some members of the news media are distorting the impact of the gun he invented by claiming it “will allow for the production and widespread proliferation of undetectable plastic firearms.”
In truth, “undetectable plastic guns have been illegal for 30 years,” said Chris W. Cox, executive director of the NRA’s political arm. A federal law passed in 1988 — crafted with NRA support — bars the manufacture, sale or possession of an undetectable firearm.
“People shouldn’t be under the impression they can download this and make an undetectable firearm,” said Sen. John Cornyn, the second-ranking Republican and one of few Texas statewide officials willing to comment on the issue. ‘A non-problem’
Trump spokesman Hogan Gidley made much the same point, saying the administration supports the law against wholly plastic guns, including those made with a 3D printer.
But Democrats in Congress called the law weak and said gun users can get around it with weapons that have a removable metal block the gun doesn’t need in order to function.
Democrats filed legislation that would prohibit the publication of a digital file online that allows a 3D printer to manufacture a firearm. Democrats also filed a separate bill to require that all guns have at least one non-removable component made of metal so they can be discovered by metal detectors.
Why have Cruz, Abbott and Patrick declined to comment on 3D-printed guns? They likely see it as a no-win issue, said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University.
“If they come out in favor of 3-D printed guns, they antagonize many centrist and moderate conservatives who are pro-Second Amendment but believe 3D printed guns represent a danger,” Jones said. “But if you come out against it, then you antagonize staunch Second Amendment rights advocates who effectively are angered by anything that is seen as constraining their right to own and bear arms.”
Industry experts have expressed doubts that criminals would go to the trouble of making their own plastic guns, since the printers needed to make them can cost thousands of dollars, the guns themselves tend to disintegrate quickly and traditional firearms are easy to come by.
“Why would Greg Abbott make any sort of comment on a non-problem?” said Alice Tripp, legislative director for the Texas State Rifle Association, which advocates for gun rights. The group has no position on the court case over blueprints for 3-D printed guns, which she stressed are already illegal to make or own.
While a blueprint might make for interesting art decor, Tripp said the guns are “so cottonpicking ugly, who would ever want one?”