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Proposed Regulation Could Keep 3D-printed Gun Blueprints Offline For Good

SonicSpike sends a report on a proposed update to the International Traffic in Arms (ITAR) regulations which could shut down the sharing of files for 3D printed gun parts over the internet. "Hidden within the proposal, which restricts what gear, technology, and info can and cannot be exported out of the U.S., is a ban on posting schematics for 3D printed gun parts online." This follows a lawsuit from Cody Wilson and Defense Distributed back in May fighting the federal government's command to remove blueprints for the "Liberator" 3D-printed gun from their website. A senior official at the U.S. State Department said, "By putting up a digital file, that constitutes an export of the data. If it's an executable digital file, any foreign interests can get a hold of it."

4 of 423 comments (clear)

  1. Re:compensating? by JonWan · · Score: 4, Informative

    This has nothing to do with guns or dicks. It's about control, the control of information that everyone already has. It's useless regulation that will end up costing billions of dollars.

  2. Re:Crappy precedent... by delt0r · · Score: 4, Informative

    This is not the first time they did this. In fact it has quite an interesting history in cryptography that was classified as a munition for just this reason. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

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    If information wants to be free, why does my internet connection cost so much?
  3. Re:Crappy precedent... by wvmarle · · Score: 4, Informative

    You must be new here.

    Ever heard of PGP? The versions that used the large encryption keys (>1024 bits at the time, iirc, or maybe even smaller keys), used to be banned for export under certain US military laws. The rest of the world had to do with a weaker version of PGP. Not that the full version wasn't available to us anyway...

  4. Re:bans on knowledge rarely work by bobbied · · Score: 2, Informative

    So, lets get this straight... You are for people out in the country being able to print parts for their guns because getting parts might be hard? Um, so if they cannot mail order gun parts, where on earth are they going to get a 3D printer and supplies to run it?

    The rest of your post is 100% not original thinking but pabulum rhetoric from the Anti-Gun crowd. Of course gun laws don't stop bad guys from using guns in bad ways, new laws will have the same problem, only the law abiding will follow them, bad people won't care. The problem YOU have is that until you take 100% of the guns off the streets and out of EVERYBODY'S hands there is no way your utopian views will ever eliminate the "bad people" doing "bad things" which happen to be illegal. However, the 2nd amendment prevents you from disarming the citizens in the USA. Guns are here to stay.

    What we actually NEED in this situation is to ARM the law abiding. Put guns in the hands of good people. Give them the ability to protect themselves and others from the nut cases hell bent on shooting people for what ever reason. Make it so these crazed "I don't care what the law says I'm going to shoot somebody" shooters don't last long because waiting for the police to get there takes too long, too many people die while the police are responding.

    ONE gun in the hands of a ordinary citizen in the movie theater, could have prevented many deaths. Multiple guns would have been even better... Sure, people may still die, but in an active shooter situation, if you can stop the shooter sooner, less people die.

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    "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101