Slashdot Mirror
With 3D Printer Gun Files, National Security Interest Trumps Free Speech, Court Rules (arstechnica.com)
A federal appeals court ruled this week against Defense Distributed, the Texas organization that promotes 3D-printed guns, in a lawsuit that it brought last year against the State Department. In a 2-1 decision, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals was not persuaded that Defense Distributed's right to free speech under the First Amendment outweighs national security concerns. From an ArsTechnica report: The majority concluded: 'Ordinarily, of course, the protection of constitutional rights would be the highest public interest at issue in a case. That is not necessarily true here, however, because the State Department has asserted a very strong public interest in national defense and national security. Indeed, the State Department's stated interest in preventing foreign nationals -- including all manner of enemies of this country -- from obtaining technical data on how to produce weapons and weapon parts is not merely tangentially related to national defense and national security; it lies squarely within that interest.'
This is nothing new, Philip Zimmermann was receiving similar threats during the first crypto-war so published the source code of PGP in a book (https://www.amazon.com/PGP-Internals-Philip-R-Zimmermann/dp/0262240394/) and more or less dared the feds to ban a book.
He won.
(this is the short version).
Help Brendan pay off his student loans
Their gun laws post-Hobart shootings have greatly reduced the number of suicides.
I'm not sure what's more odd or ridiculous about your post:
That you think Australia's gun control laws were a significant factor in lowering its suicide rate, or that you think most people care about suicide in the first place.
This is worse than putting it under Arms Export Control Act. This opens door for legislatures to criminalize possession of the files (a la possession of child porn). Hopefully SCOTUS is smarter than this.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
That's the US's slide down the slippery slope picking up speed.
Good god I never thought the militias would sound saner than the government....
Take note that two things did not exist when that document was written: armed police, and a standing army. The reason why we have the Second Amendment was that the Founders were violently opposed to both of those things. So if you're an adherent of the 2nd Amendment, you have a lot of reconciling to do. Are you also in favor of disbanding the Army and police? Because right now we have a ton of heavily armed jackoffs running around the country shooting whoever they want. And that's that other thing, the primary purpose of the 2nd Amendment was recognized as being a complete failure before the Founders were dead, with the establishment of a regular Army and Navy, specifically because of the many failures of the militia troops to either show up or do anything if they did show up. It turns out that having a gun and knowing how to hold it aren't actually sufficient training to be able to fight effectively. How's the 'fidelity to the Constitution' thing holding up? Not so good, seemingly.