Plastic Guns

Homemade weapons plans available today to anyone

Today, thanks to an agreement made this year with the U.S. State Department and a Texasbased nonprofit organization called Defense Distributed, anyone with an Internet connection will be able to download blueprints for plastic firearms that can be built using 3-D printer technology.

The idea has met with a lot of opposition. At least eight states have sued to prevent the deal from taking effect. Even President Donald Trump, whose administration approved the settlement, seems to be having second thoughts. On Tuesday, the president took to Twitter to say that he is looking into the guns and that they “don’t make much sense.”

We tend to agree.

The Second Amendment gives Americans the right to keep and bear arms. We support that. But no Constitutional right is absolute. Right now, we have restrictions on the ownership of fullyautomatic weapons, for example. Federal and state authorities, however, must be careful not to infringe on the rights of law-abiding citizens. There must be a compelling case before any action restricting access can even be considered.

So what are the dangers here? These plastic, homemade guns have the potential to foil metal detectors. That means they could be smuggled onto airplanes, into schools and other public buildings. And because they require no background checks and are essentially untraceable, they could be used to supply terrorists, drug gangs and other criminals with a never-ending supply of “ghost” weapons.

What are the positives? Frankly, none that we can think of.

But there is another question: Will a law banning these weapons from everyone—including responsible citizens—do any good? The truth is the genie is already out of the bottle. Blueprints for 3-D printer guns are already available online and already being used. There is little that can be done about that.

Time and money would be better spent on developing ways and means of detecting these guns and their components. They are already out there and it won’t be long before there are a lot more of them.