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Defense Distributed Sues State Department Over 3-D Gun Censorship

Posted by timothy on from the more-of-those-darn-illegal-shapes dept.

SonicSpike writes with word that Cody Wilson, whose projects to create (and disseminate the plans for) printable guns have fascinated some and horrified others, is not going to quietly comply with the U.S. State Deparment's demand that he remove such plans from the internet. Wilson, says Wired, is picking a fight that could pit proponents of gun control and defenders of free speech against each other in an age when the line between a lethal weapon and a collection of bits is blurrier than ever before. Wilson's gun manufacturing advocacy group Defense Distributed, along with the gun rights group the Second Amendment Foundation, on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against the State Department and several of its officials, including Secretary of State John Kerry. In their complaint, they claim that a State Department agency called the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) violated their first amendment right to free speech by telling Defense Distributed that it couldn't publish a 3-D printable file for its one-shot plastic pistol known as the Liberator, along with a collection of other printable gun parts, on its website.

2 of 312 comments (clear)

  1. I'm all for DD by morgauxo · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm all for DD supporting second amendment rights but come on... I still can barely believe that people are actually printing guns.

    Sure.. with some super-expensive, totally out of reach equipment you can print a nice metal gun at many many times the price of making it the old fashioned way. But plastic guns? Really... let me type that again... PLASTIC F'ING GUNS!!

    Law abiding citizen or criminal... I think a person shooting a plastic gun is mostly a threat to themself. One of these things is going to blow up in somebody's face!

    Those who support individual rights can call 3d printed guns a great thing. Those who fear inanimate objects and bogeymen can call it a disaster. I'll just call it a boatload of Darwin Awards waiting to happen!

  2. Re:Bureaucrats by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    "First they came for the Russians' memes, and I did not speak out--

    because I was not a Russian.

    Then they came for the 3-D printable guns, and I did not speak out--

    because I did not own a 3-D printer.

    Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."

    -Abraham Lincoln