3D-printed gun plans stymied again
Injunction blocks posting blueprints for the untraceable plastic firearms
WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Tuesday granted a temporary nationwide injunction blocking a Texas man from online distribution of blueprints for 3D printed “ghost guns” despite a decision last month by the Trump administration to allow the posting of instructions for making the untraceable plastic firearms.
Cody Wilson, a champion of gun rights and anarchism from Texas who has waged a yearslong legal battle for the right to post the schematics for making homemade guns, had said he would begin making the plans available following a settlement with the State Department ending the government’s effort to stop him.
But with just hours before an Aug. 1 deadline when Wilson has said he will upload many more schematics — including in-
structions for making AR-15-style rifles — alarmed public officials had accelerated their efforts to prevent Wilson from moving forward with his plans.
Attorneys general in eight states and the District of Columbia filed a joint lawsuit in federal court in Seattle on Monday attempting to force the Trump administration to prevent Wilson’s nonprofit organization, Defense Distributed, from making the technical plans for the plastic guns available online.
In a decision from the bench issued immediately after an hourlong argument by attorneys for both sides, Judge Robert S. Lasnik of U.S. District Court said the state attorneys general bringing the suit had to his satisfaction established “a likelihood of irreparable harm.” He said they had also established a likelihood of success on the merits.
‘Looking into’ the issue
Lasnik said in his ruling there were “serious First Amendment issues,” that would need to be worked out later in court but that for the moment there should be “no posting of instructions of how to produce 3D guns on the internet.”
Wilson’s website touts the arrival of “the age of the downloadable gun” on Wednesday. Critics say the homemade firearms, which can be printed without serial numbers or government registration, would allow terrorists to evade detection and could lead to the widespread distribution of these untraceable weapons.
But in a tweet Tuesday, President Donald Trump said he is “looking into” his administration’s decision last month to clear the way for Wilson’s actions.
“I am looking into 3-D Plastic Guns being sold to the public,” the president said. “Already spoke to NRA, doesn’t seem to make much sense!”
State Department officials in the Obama administration blocked the company in 2013 from distributing the downloadable designs for the firearm, saying it violated export laws that ban the distribution of firearms to other countries. Wilson sued in 2015, and the legal case had dragged on for several years.
But last month, the State Department reversed course and said it would allow the company to post the plans after concluding that publication of the schematics does not violate the defense export controls designed to keep sensitive military technology out of the hands of the country’s enemies. A court-approved settlement between the State Department and Wilson ended the legal case and gave Wilson the right to distribute the schematics.
The judge’s ruling Tuesday evening puts a temporary halt to Wilson’s plans.
“We’re disappointed,” Wilson said. “The law is clear. These plaintiffs just don’t have standing to challenge the settlement. You can’t unclose a federally closed matter. And I consider the matter to be closed.”
In the lawsuit filed Monday, the officials had urged a judge to block that decision, saying that allowing the company to continue posting the plans online is a threat to public safety and that terrorists could use hard-to-trace plastic weapons to evade detection by metal detectors.
“3-D printed guns are functional weapons that are often unrecognizable by standard metal detectors because they are made out of materials other than metal (e.g., plastic) and untraceable because they contain no serial numbers,” the state officials said in the lawsuit. “Anyone with access to the CAD files and a commercially available 3-D printer could readily manufacture, possess, or sell such a weapon.”
Dems call to reverse policy
Tuesday morning, alarmed Senate Democrats declared that Trump would be responsible for any injuries or deaths resulting from untraceable 3D plastic guns and called on him to reverse the policy immediately.
“It’s his doing, it’s his responsibility and the blood is going to be on his hands,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. “He can tweet from now until the end of his administration, but the hard reality is that he can stop needless death and injury in America.”
Sen. Edward J. Markey, DMass., said: “Donald Trump will be totally responsible for every downloadable plastic AR-15 that will be roaming the streets of our country if he does not act today, because beginning tonight at 12:01 a.m., bad people can go on Instagram and get an insta-gun.”
Blumenthal and Markey were among a group of Democrats who announced two bills related to 3D guns: one that would bar the manufacture and sale of any untraceable weapon, and another that would prohibit the online publication of blueprints for the plastic guns.
But passing gun legislation in Congress has proved nearly impossible, and the House of Representatives is already gone for its August recess, which means no bill can be taken up until September. While the lawmakers said they are soliciting Republican support, at least one Republican, Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota, said it would be extremely difficult to stop the proliferation of the weapons.
“This is a new technology which you’re not going to put back into the bottle; it is there,” Rounds said, adding that the smarter course would be to “create new technologies and utilize new technologies” — such as metal detectors that could also recognize plastic.
It is not clear what Trump is prepared to do in the wake of his tweet. The president has been a staunch supporter of gun rights and has repeatedly said that he is the best friend of the National Rifle Association, which contributed about $30 million to his presidential campaign.