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DOJ Reaches Settlement On Publication of Files About 3D Printed Firearms (joshblackman.com)
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."
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."
This is great news for the school-shooting industry. I expect that the NRA and Second Amendment activists are thrilled at having these new tools to murder children.
Yeah, because the existing AR-15 and similar weapons which are readily available all across the country are no match for these plastic super weapons, which on a good day, may be able to fire one bullet without exploding and killing the shooter!
If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
There is an expanding Open Source Space community. You can meet them at the upcoming Open Source Cubesat Workshop. 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.
Bruce Perens.
What a fucking douche. There are millions of people who own firearms and don't shoot children. There are drivers who intentionally run over children. Are you going to forbid kit car plans because someone might use them for killing children? There are legitimate uses of a weapon. Self defense, hunting (legalized and regulated), sport (skeet shooting), and of course on the firing range.
You and your fucking comment are as sick as the deranged asswipes who shoot at innocent people, children included. Fucking retard.
For the upper receiver, sure. The lower receiver houses the trigger group, mag release, and a few other things that don't operate under the firing pressure. Would I trust current filament with this? Maybe, maybe not. I still like that the plans are out, though.
That was a curious ruling in itself, given that at the founding of the United States, the expectation was that most warships would be in private hands rather than government. That's why the Constitution includes a provision for issuing Letters of Marque and Reprisal to charter private citizens to conduct warfare on its behalf.
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.
Old joke but true.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
It's videos like that which demonstrate the lie that is the "assault weapon". The gun grabbers say they want to take those "evil weapons of war" from the public but leave us with our hunting rifles. That's a lie and if they know anything about rifles or hunting then they know it's a lie. So either they are ignorant or they assume the people are ignorant.
Oh, and an "assault rifle" is a real thing. An assault rifle is a weapon capable of switching between single shot with each trigger pull (semi-automatic) and multiple shots per trigger pull (burst or fully-automatic). To the DOJ anything that is capable of firing more than one cartridge with a pull of a trigger is a "machine gun". A shotgun fires multiple projectiles with each pull of the trigger but that does not make it a machine gun so long as all the projectiles are in a single cartridge. There are air guns that can fire multiple projectiles but since the projectiles are not contained in a cartridge that is also not a machine gun. State laws vary on this such as my own where any "dangerous weapon" is categorized along with firearms, so even pepper spray or a taser needs a permit to carry concealed.
The definition of an assault weapon varies by state. There was a big deal made about some insane person murdering schoolchildren with an "assault weapon" which was a lie. Assault weapons, by their definition, are banned and so no one has committed a mass murder in a school with an assault weapon as defined in that state. Now that we've seen a handful of murders done with handguns and pump action shotguns it seems, to me at least, the concept of the "assault weapon" is fading. Banning shotguns will not go over well, and finally people are discussing things that will actually stop murders such as armed guards at schools.
I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
>"What then is inherently military?"
Remember their statement:
"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."
They just defined it, in reverse. It would be all automatic firearms, and firearms over .50 caliber. ANY firearm can or may be used by the military, but the previous sentence define those that are inherently military.
Your followup statements are out of bounds, since their definition only regards firearms. Nuclear bombs, tanks, etc, are not "firearms".