Texas firm sues N.J. over gun schematics

AUSTIN — A company that sells plans for guns that can be built with a 3-D printer was in federal court on Tuesday seeking to overturn a New Jersey law that essentially forbids it from doing business in that state.

Attorneys for Defense Distributed asked U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman to issue a preliminary injunction to stop New Jersey officials from enforcing the new law, which makes it a criminal act for any company to provide schematics, either by mail or online, for a gun that can be made with a 3D-printer. Similar laws have been proposed in several other states, including Texas.

The hearing comes amid legal battles on multiple fronts for Defense Distributed, which argues that providing people with the plans is protected speech under the First Amendment. Attorneys general from 19 states have sued the company in federal court in Washington to prevent the online publication of its firearms blueprints. That case is pending.

Lawmakers and law enforcement officials have argued that the plastic guns, which do not have serial numbers and may evade some metal detectors, present a threat to public safety.

Lawyers from New Jersey called the First Amendment argument “bizarre” and said the case belongs in New Jersey, not Texas.

“We don’t want guns in the hands of terrorists or criminals or someone who wants to walk into a school with an AR-15 that they printed from the internet instead of going to a gun store and going through a background check,” said Casey Low, a lawyer with the New Jersey attorney general’s office.

Pitman has denied two previous requests by Defense Distributed for a temporary restraining order against the law, saying the company had not met the legal threshold for a restraining order to be issued. Pitman is expected to rule on the latest injunction request in the coming days.