The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
State to fight over ‘ghost guns’
Connecticut plans to sue the federal government to block the release of files that will allow people to use 3D printers to manufacture guns, Attorney General William Tong announced Wednesday.
Surrounded by members of CT Against Gun Violence and Moms Demand Action, he outlined plans to join with 19 other states to challenge the federal rule change, which he said will “allow people, in the secrecy of their homes and basements, to print out plans and produce totally unserialized, unregistered, undetectable, untraceable 3D printed guns.”
Connecticut legislators have already taken steps against “ghost guns,” by banning the production of guns entirely from plastic that cannot be found by metal detectors, and requiring that if someone produces or assembles a gun, they must obtain a serial number from the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection and attach it to the weapon.
But other states have not passed similar legislation, meaning 3D-printed guns could cross state lines and “pose a serious risk to public safety,” Tong said. The blueprints will allow people to bypass background check safeguards, he said.
The Trump administration is transferring authority over the plans from the Department of State to the Department of Commerce, a move expected to allow the blueprints to be posted online. Attorneys general in 20 states, led by Washington, will sue as soon as the rule is finalized, Tong said.
Gov. Ned Lamont called it “the gun show loophole of the 21st century,” comparing it to the way private, unlicensed sellers can sell weapons to buyers without background checks or records of the sale. “These are all enormous loopholes to make our streets more dangerous,” he said.
“3D guns circumvent our laws,” said Po Murray, Newton Action Alliance Chairwoman. “3D and ghost guns in the hands of domestic abusers, felons, terrorists and other prohibited purchasers result in grave public safety, national security and international threats.”
She called for people to urge members of Congress and leaders and legislators in other states to enact bans on the weapons like Connecticut’s.
CT Against Gun Violence Executive Director Jeremy Stein held up a picture of a loaded 3D-printed gun that police confiscated from a Waterbury man last year. “We cannot have these things in the hands of people who are going to be a danger to our families, to themselves and others,” he said.
3D printers are becoming increasingly common and accessible in places like libraries and schools, said Alexis Gevanter, Connecticut chapter leader of Moms Demand Action. “The online availability of downloadable guns gives the most technologically sophisticated members of our society, our children, easy access to something we are desperately trying to keep out of their hands,” she said.
The legal battle over the gun plans has been going on for more than five years, after a Texas man, Cody Wilson, and his nonprofit group, Defense Distributed, posted blueprints for a printed handgun online in 2013. The U.S. Department of State told him to take down the plans for the gun, which he called “The Liberator; he complied but sued the government in 2015.
The Trump administration ultimately settled that suit in 2018, allowing for the plans to be released online, but that was halted by another lawsuit from a group of states.