Printable gun plans can be posted

Coalition of groups files appeal to block ruling

They look futuristic, the type of firearms that would-be assassins use in movies: 3-D-printed guns made of a hard plastic that are simple to assemble, easy to conceal and tough to trace.

The future is here.

A Texas company was given the green light to post blueprints online showing people how to make 3-D-printed guns from the comfort of their home.

Gun safety advocates and some law enforcement officials are appalled, worried that this is exactly what criminals and terrorists want: guns that can’t be flagged by metal detectors, don’t have serial numbers to trace and don’t require the usual background checks.

A coalition of gun control groups filed an appeal in federal court seeking to block a recent Trump administration ruling allowing Cody Wilson and his company, Defense Distributed, to post blueprints online for creation of a 3-D-printed firearm.

Gun industry experts say the guns are simply a modern-day equivalent of what already is legal and readily available.

They argue that 3-D-printed firearms won’t be a draw for criminals since the printers needed to make one are wildly expensive and the firearms themselves aren’t very durable.

Unlike traditional firearms that can fire thousands of rounds in their lifetime, the 3-D-printed guns normally last only a few rounds before they fall apart.

Law enforcement officials express concern about allowing the designs for such firearms to be publicly available expressly because they’re easy to conceal and untraceable since there’s no requirement for the firearms to have serial numbers.

“When you think about all the rhetoric we here in our nation about tightening our borders and homeland security, and now we’re going to put out there for anyone who wants a recipe for how to overcome … TSA airport screenings or any other metal detector,” said Rick Myers, executive director of the Major Cities Chiefs Association. “It’s absolutely insane.”

Robert Spitzer, chairman of political science at the State University of New York at Cortland and an expert on the Second Amendment, warned that while 3-D-printed firearms are a novelty now, technology will soon catch up.

Jay Janner The Associated Press A plastic pistol that was made entirely on a 3-D printer is shown in Austin, Texas. Defense Distributed won permission to make plans for such guns available online.