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Printer The Courts Government The Military United States

DOJ Reaches Settlement On Publication of Files About 3D Printed Firearms (joshblackman.com) 374

Posted by BeauHD from the gotta-collect-em-all dept.
He Who Has No Name writes: Those who remember Cody Wilson and Defense Distributed -- the self-described cryptoanarchist and his organization that published plans for 3D printable firearm parts, respectively -- also remember that not long after the plans for the printable Liberator single-shot pistol hit the web, the Department of State seized the Defense Distributed website and prohibited Wilson from publishing 3D printable firearm plans, claiming violations of ITAR -- the International Traffic in Arms Regulation, a U.S. law taxing and restricting the distribution of a wide variety of physical goods listed as having military value. Slashdot covered the website seizure here (the Department of Defense was initially misreported in sources to have been the agency responsible).

In both a First and Second Amendment win, the Second Amendment Foundation has settled with the Department of State after suing on behalf of Defense Distributed. Slashdot reader schwit1 shares an excerpt from the report: "Under terms of the settlement, the government has agreed to waive its prior restraint against the plaintiffs, allowing them to freely publish the 3-D files and other information at issue. The government has also agreed to pay a significant portion of the plaintiffs' attorney's fees, and to return $10,000 in State Department registration dues paid by Defense Distributed as a result of the prior restraint. Significantly, the government expressly acknowledges that non-automatic firearms up to .50-caliber -- including modern semi-auto sporting rifles such as the popular AR-15 and similar firearms -- are not inherently military."
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DOJ Reaches Settlement On Publication of Files About 3D Printed Firearms More

DOJ Reaches Settlement On Publication of Files About 3D Printed Firearms

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  • Woot! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Alypius ( 3606369 ) on Tuesday July 10, 2018 @04:51PM (#56925114)
    Finally, a good reason to get that 3D printer!

    • Re:Woot! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by markdavis ( 642305 ) on Tuesday July 10, 2018 @05:08PM (#56925200)

      >"Finally, a good reason to get that 3D printer!"

      If you don't mind it exploding in your hand when you target practice. I can think of a million better/more useful things to make with a 3D printer than an unreliable, dangerous, inaccurate, single-shot, plastic "gun".

      Also, just because you can make it yourself doesn't mean it is legal to do so, or possess it, or carry it, or use it. Just like buying a car doesn't mean you can legally drive it, or making your own meth means you can use it.

      At stake was the fact that the INFORMATION ITSELF is not illegal to document/share/know. In that regard, it was a correct decision. It was a win for the 1st Amendment because it is just information. The win for the 2nd Amendment wasn't making plastic guns, it was the statement that the government also correctly acknowledged that "non-automatic firearms up to .50-caliber -- including modern semi-auto sporting rifles such as the popular AR-15 and similar firearms -- are not inherently military."

      • Like I said in another post, I wouldn't trust the current materials with combustion temps and pressures. Making an extended magazine release, though, is entirely within the realm of possibility. As for the legality, people have been making AR-15s from 80% receivers [brownells.com] for years. It's entirely legal per the BATF, though I haven't had a chance/need to catch up on the latest police state law in CA.

      • Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)

        by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday July 10, 2018 @05:39PM (#56925388)
        Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • If you don't mind it exploding in your hand when you target practice. I can think of a million better/more useful things to make with a 3D printer than an unreliable, dangerous, inaccurate, single-shot, plastic "gun".

        Also, just because you can make it yourself doesn't mean it is legal to do so, or possess it, or carry it, or use it.

        One pleasant surprise from the last election is that gun rights are now safe for decades to come - by some estimates, 25 to 40 years.

        Also, it was pointed out that gun rights lobbies have not pressed gun ownership issues to the supreme court in recent decades because it would have resulted in a tossup decision (making precedent that would be very hard to overturn). Now that we have seated actual constitutionalists, the expectation is that after Ruth Bader Ginsburg(*) retires and Trump appoints the next justi

      • Also, just because you can make it yourself doesn't mean it is legal to do so, or possess it, or carry it, or use it.

        Actually, if we are talking about firearms, as long as you give it a serial number, and keep it as a single shot, sub .50 round, that's exactly what it means. It's when you try to distribute it that Uncle Sam has a problem.

        Try making something with your hands sometime, and then imagine some bureaucrat telling you that it's toooooo scary, and you can't keep it. Imagine he demands you have to give it to him. That's the sort of behavior that the 2nd was written for.

        There used to be an outfit in California that

        • >"Actually, if we are talking about firearms, as long as you give it a serial number, and keep it as a single shot, sub .50 round, that's exactly what it means. It's when you try to distribute it that Uncle Sam has a problem."

          There are a LOT of factors to consider..... Mere possession, in any way, of a firearm (of any type, no matter how you came about it) by a felon, for example, is a Federal crime. Carrying a firearm legally obtained, in a concealed way, without being properly licensed, off your own p

        • Single shot isn't a requirement. Neither is a serial, although a serial is recommended just to save hassles with range fudds who think they know the law (I have 4 guns w/o serials, serials weren't required on rifles/shotguns until 1968) and cops. And with the cops, you'll beat the rap but you never beat the ride....

      • The win for the 2nd Amendment wasn't making plastic guns, it was the statement that the government also correctly acknowledged that "non-automatic firearms up to .50-caliber -- including modern semi-auto sporting rifles such as the popular AR-15 and similar firearms -- are not inherently military."

        I don't agree that it's a win. The 2nd Amendment says nothing about being "inherently military", and, a plain reading of it makes clear that it's talking about military weaponry since we need a militia. I'd rather see the DOJ just say "Yes, we understand what the Founders meant, which is that you can have weaponry even if it's military grade."

  • Not exactly a win (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 10, 2018 @04:55PM (#56925134)

    The Government re-categorized common small arms to no longer fall under ITAR, but instead be regulated by standard Dept. of Commerce international trade regulations.
    Since ITAR no longer applies to Defense Distributed, the case is over.

    But it's just an administrative policy change. The next administration could swap it back at any time. It needs Congress to pass a law protecting blueprints and plans, or for the Supreme Court to decide a case in favor of the First Amendment to prevent future victims.

    • But it's just an administrative policy change. The next administration could swap it back at any time.

      That's true but in the mean time there will be many months or years of people posting these plans on the internet, other people downloading them, and the machines capable of producing firearms getting cheaper and more numerous.

      Any administration that follows that wants to change this rule will have to find a way to put this toothpaste back in the tube. The DOJ obviously stepped out of line in preventing these plans from being distributed. Perhaps they took the steps they did out of an abundance of caution

  • Has meaning for Open Source Space research (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Bruce Perens ( 3872 ) <bruce@perens.com> on Tuesday July 10, 2018 @04:57PM (#56925144) Homepage Journal

    There is an expanding Open Source Space community. You can meet them at the upcoming Open Source Cubesat Workshop. [oscw.space] This is actually an interesting precedent for us, because satellites and various space technologies are also "munitions" under ITAR or EAR, both laws have a carve-out for Open Source, and here it has been tested.

    Second-amendment issues are out-of-scope for most space research organizations, so nothing said about that.

    • That is good news. I suppose I could see the point, a particularly clever individual might somehow figure out a way to take advantage of that positioning to hyper-accelerate a ceramic projectile or something but I doubt it.

  • I can see it now. (Score:5, Funny)

    by BrookHarty ( 9119 ) on Tuesday July 10, 2018 @05:05PM (#56925186) Journal

    I can see it now, pissed off guy wants to go on a shooting spree.

    Order 3d printer on amazon after hours of research, forgot to order filament, order filament, open cad, sketch rifle, does a horrible job, searches internet for a pattern, downloads pattern, load pattern into 3d printer, hit print, hours later, realizes he has wrong filament, re-order filament, printer pauses ruining print, try printing again, platter not cold enough and ruins print, platter to hot and melts print, after 2 dozen tries, gets a good print. Realizes he needs bullets, drives to sporting store buys bullets. Takes gun into woods, gun shoots 1 bullet at a time due to stress, gun jams, gun breaks after 4 bullets.

    Queue up another print job to print replacement gun, repeat, while waiting for his 3rd print, subscribes to 3d printer forums.

    Over a month late, finally gets a good prototype gun printed, forgets why he was mad, and starts printing 3d printed boats.

    • from the guy down the street selling them for $100 bucks a pop. Use it for a one time kill/assassination.

      • 1. Buy your max gun buyback number.
        2. Sell to state (potentially saving an innocent good gun from being melted down).
        3. Profit. note No ?.

        4. Optional. Buy ammo!

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Shotgun ( 30919 )

      Alternatively:

      Buy some bullets. find a piece of steel pipe in which the bullet fits smoothly. Drill a hole in a bloc of wood to hold the pipe. Drive a nail in another block of wood. Attach a rubber band to each side of the first block of wood, after first passing it through a hole in the second block. Put bullet in end of pipe. Pull second block back, so that the rubber band slams the nail head against the bullet.

      Yes, that is actually a gun. Yes, that will actually work. Yes, you do stand a good cha

  • What Happens When 3D Printers Get Better??? (Score:3)

    by dryriver ( 1010635 ) on Tuesday July 10, 2018 @05:12PM (#56925226)
    Imagine that 10 years from now there are 3D printers that print really strong metal parts which can be assembled into a machine gun or similar. Then what? Just because today's printers can only build crappy one-shot plastic guns doesn't mean that tomorrow's printers won't be able to print far more dangerous DIY weapons.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by OzPeter ( 195038 )

      Imagine that 10 years from now there are 3D printers that print really strong metal parts which can be assembled into a machine gun or similar.

      Do you mean like the sintered metal 3D printers that some car manufacturers are already using? You can slap down your credit card and walk away with such a printer today.

      • Do you mean like the sintered metal 3D printers that some car manufacturers are already using? You can slap down your credit card and walk away with such a printer today.

        No I really can't: my credit limit doesn't go anywhere near that high! I think for now the credit for one of those machines is out of reach of most people.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Rei ( 128717 )

          You can always order parts from online services. Then you get actual quality parts, from quality printers, run by people who know what the heck they're doing.

          Of course, if you're trying to order gun parts, you're limited by how effectively the company can recognize what you're printing as gun parts.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Rei ( 128717 )

            Honestly, though, I really don't understand why guns seem to be the number one thing people obsess over printing. At least be creative.

            There's one 3d printing project which has been tempting me recently... trying to make the first 3d printed telescope mirrors (stiffened on the back with a 3d truss structure). Now obviously you can't get anywhere near the required precision from today's printers. For example, on iMaterialise, the best resolution in metal is ~100 micron, and in plastic ~200-250 micron. So 2-3

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Todays (expensive) printers can print metal components.

      Not going to be expensive for long

      scientists working at Michigan Technological University have developed a 3D metal printer that costs just $1,500 to build

      https://www.element.com/nucleu... [element.com]

    • Re:What Happens When 3D Printers Get Better??? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by shaitand ( 626655 ) on Tuesday July 10, 2018 @05:35PM (#56925358) Journal
      Ummm.... you know there have been plans on the internet since the 90's for guns you could make yourself with regular old metalworking tools from the hardware store right? And there have been books you could send to the military for by mail which explain how to make improvised munitions as well.

      For that matter, you can make an incredibly devastating dust bomb with a bag of flour from the grocery store and a fan with a sparking motor. It has never been particularly difficult to wipe out half a school if you really wanted to. What is new is the number of crazy people willing to do such a thing and that is most likely because people are heavily sensitized and emotionally weak due to lack of dealing with things like every guy bullying every other guy in high school and such. A slightly rougher society and "words will never hurt me" attitude actually results in a thicker skin and words genuinely not bothering you so much.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by DaHat ( 247651 )

      Imagine that 10 years from now there are 3D printers that print really strong metal parts which can be assembled into a machine gun or similar.

      Manufacturing a new machine gun is generally a crime for a civilian (without the proper BATFE blessing) since 1986, just as has it long been illegal to take a hacksaw and saw off the barrel of a shotgun.

      How does the inability to prevent one (and it's lack of being a serious problem) mean that the other is destined to happen and become a serious problem?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by EvilSS ( 557649 )
      What are you talking about, you can do that today! Small CNC machines exist, and they are not completely out of range for a mere mortal. Not to mention AK's can be built from sheet metal and bar stock (there is an entire niche hobby around building them at home). Most people use pre-made barrels (since making a good barrel would be a PITA, but making a usable would be possible) and other parts, but with persistence one could make the entire thing at home with off the shelf non-gun parts.

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