Pre-emptive 3D gun strike
NY aims to disarm printer weapons
Authorities are scrambling to get ahead of a potential flood of untraceable and undetectable 3D-printer guns in New York as the federal courts weigh thee on-online release of blueprints for the weapons
The White House on Wednes-nesday said President Trump backed the temporary halting of Texas-based company Defense Distributed’s planned release of the online schematics.
“The president is glad this effort was delayed to give more time to review the issue,”” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.
But New York pols are already looking beyond the short-term restraining order issued in Seat-Seattle by US District Court Judge Robert Lasnik.
“We have the strongest gun laws in the nation, but what good is it if it can be subverted by homemade AR-15s or AK-47s?” said state Sen. Brad Hoylman (D-Manhattan).
Hoylman on Wednesday prefiled a bill that would outlaw the manufacture of firearms without a gunsmith license, and require each major component of a weapon to be identifiable by a metal detector.
But the proposal wouldn’t be up for debate until the Senate’s next session begins in January — months after Lasnik’s Aug. 10 hearing to determine whether the restraining order he issued Tuesday should become permanent.
Gov. Cuomo also backed the effort to keep untraceable “ghost guns” out of the state, sending a cease-and-desist letter to Defense Distributed on Tuesday and directing State Police to issue a review of existing gun laws.
Under current state law, any assault weapon — whether off the factory line or crafted in a 3D printer — is illegal.
A 3D-printed pistol or revolver could conceivably be legal, New York State Police said, but it would have to be made by a licensed firearm owner, include a serial number and be registered with local authorities.
Long guns that don’t qualify as assault weapons, however, don’t require licenses to own upstate — and officials said 3D-printed guns in that style would be no exception.
In New York City, where gun-registration regulations differ from upstate communities and are handled by the NYPD, licenses for 3D guns have not and will not be issued, said a department spokesman.
Further, any 3D-printed guns would have to be compliant with the 1988 federal Undetectable Firearms Act, which requires at least some component of every firearm to be picked up on a metal detector.
The White House said it stands by that Reagan-era law.