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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."

15 of 374 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Lockdown by BitterOak · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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?
  2. Not exactly a win by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  3. Re:Lockdown by saloomy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

  4. Re:Lockdown by Alypius · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  5. Re:Lockdown by Noishkel · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm guessing no one told the OP of this tread that you can download free PDFs of all metal machine pistols off of the web off of random public and open websites. Such as http://thehomegunsmith.com/

  6. I can see it now. by BrookHarty · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

  7. Re:Woot! by markdavis · · Score: 5, Insightful

    >"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."

  8. Re:Lockdown by shaitand · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Not to mention serving as a deterrent for invasion. The AR-15 may not be the best of sniper rifles, especially the lower cal variants but occupation would certainly be uncomfortable with a dozen snipers along every street. This isn't like Iraq or Afghanistan where they could be anywhere, in the US they ARE everywhere.

  9. Re: Woot! by TimMD909 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just 3d print a new hand. Problem solved.

  10. Re:He's just a troll by DaHat · · Score: 5, Informative

    The left also want Assault Rifle bans (yes, assault rifles are a real thing.

    Except they aren't talking about 'Assault Rifles', or as they are more commonly called... 'machine guns'... which are already heavily regulated.

    'Assault Weapons' are the made up term they use today, which encompasses primarily cosmetic features... unless you want to get to the point of cracking down on all semi-automatic handguns... which at last check SCOTUS has ruled a constitutional right to be able to own.

    It's got to do with the speed of the bullet and how it tears through flesh leaving a wide hole).

    Except the rifles which the left seeks to ban mostly shoot 223... which on average is about half the weight as say... my 270 deer rifle. Both fire a round at about the same speed, however my 270 has about 2x as much muzzle energy.

    Take this comparison of a 223 vs 30-06 against a pair of watermelons: the not at all scary looking 'hunting rifle' has far better wide hole leaving abilities: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

  11. Re:Lockdown by EvilSS · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well don't tell the urbanites, but hunting rifles are basically sniper rifles. But keep it under your hat or we'll have California dems trying to ban high end optics.

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    I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
  12. Re:Woot! by Alypius · · Score: 4, Informative

    I use mine for 3-gun competitions but I also do Civilian Marksmanship Program competitions...trying to get on a Navy shooting team to go to the national competition in Camp Perry, Ohio.

  13. Re:Woot! by magarity · · Score: 5, Funny

    Out of interest what sport is an AR-15 suited to?

    Shooting.

  14. Re:He's just a troll by blindseer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

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    I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
  15. Baby's first invasion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The "invaders" will be those brainwashed by Russian PR. They are already here and coincidentally, they are gun owners. Putin knows there will never be a Red Dawn, to many guns. So in true KGB style he is using our own strength against us by turning it to his desires. #MAGA