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20 States Take Aim At 3D Gun Company, Sue To Get Files Off the Internet (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Twenty states announced Monday that they plan to ask a federal judge in Seattle to immediately issue a temporary restraining order against Defense Distributed, a Texas-based group that has already begun making 3D-printer gun files available on its DEFCAD website after a recent legal settlement with the US State Department. "After almost 18 months I was skeptical that there was anything else that this administration would do that would truly shock me, but they have," Washington Attorney General Bill Ferguson told reporters assembled in Olympia and by phone. "Frankly, it is terrifying... We think that it is important to put a stop to this right away and make it as difficult as humanly possible to access this information." The new lawsuit, which Ferguson explained will be filed "within hours," comes just one day after Defense Distributed voluntarily agreed to block IP addresses from Pennsylvania after that state's attorney general filed a similar motion in federal court there. "Pennsylvania is still suing and we are still responding," Defense Distributed's founder, Cody Wilson, told Ars. Preemptively on Sunday, Defense Distributed sued the attorney general of New Jersey and the city attorney of Los Angeles to stop those lawsuits, largely on First Amendment grounds.
In this new 20-state initiative, the Washington attorney general argued that the State Department settlement violated the Administrative Procedure Act and also infringed upon states' Tenth Amendment right to regulate firearms within their own states. Ferguson pointed out, for example, people convicted of domestic abuse are flagged when they attempt to legally buy a gun. Allowing anyone to download and manufacture their own gun circumvents that process, he said. But Wilson told Ars it may be too late, as the files went up last Friday evening -- days before he said he would resume publishing them on August 1.
In this new 20-state initiative, the Washington attorney general argued that the State Department settlement violated the Administrative Procedure Act and also infringed upon states' Tenth Amendment right to regulate firearms within their own states. Ferguson pointed out, for example, people convicted of domestic abuse are flagged when they attempt to legally buy a gun. Allowing anyone to download and manufacture their own gun circumvents that process, he said. But Wilson told Ars it may be too late, as the files went up last Friday evening -- days before he said he would resume publishing them on August 1.
I am pro gun laws, and yet, my opinions cannot change reality. Just like "pirated" movies and music, there is no way to stop this from being distributed. I
Avantgarde Hebrew science fiction
As technology marches forward it will become easier and easier to manufacture weapons and a society which uses bans to solve the problem will have to crack down harder and harder upon freedom and liberty to stop people from circumventing those bans. Eventually you'll have to literally be locked down and monitored 24/7. You then have a choice, either you continue to treat people like children hoping in government and authority to protect them from big bad guns forever or accept the risks and inevitable pains and losses and teach people to learn to live with and use these tools like adults.
Frankly, it is terrifying... We think that it is important to put a stop to this right away and make it as difficult as humanly possible to access this information
Yeah, I hear ya. But the thing about information is that it's REALLY hard to stop it from spreading. And this isn't super top-notch secret information that only a handful of people have. Anyone with a bit of time and some free software can make their own, and then go one to share it through any avenue available in this modern ultra-connected digital world.
You're simply not going to be able to police this. It's outside the scope of what you can control.
Any attempts to illegalize it will either be laughably unenforceable or boil down to cops raiding places for what amounts to thought-crime (which will run afoul of bigger laws, namely the 1st and 4th amendments to the constitution). So we, collectively, need to get ready for a world where nearly anyone with a bit of cash to spare (like $50), will have access to firearms. Really shitty firearms at the moment, but that's probably going to get better.
Because "Internet", information wants to be free. Sure, you can cover everything on the surface, but the more "secret" the information is, the more popular it will become, and the more people will attempt to copy and distribute, and print it.
Next thing will probably be outlawing 3D printers.
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
What exactly about not having to register your freedoms is obscene? Should you have to register before getting a blog or email address?
It'd be awesome to try to tackle the problem of people wanting to kill each other in cold blood in the United States. You know, maybe try to foster a culture that values human life.
Oh wait, that goes against killing people in *other* countries though. Nevermind, that'll never work.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Yes, the government has already covered manufacturing. As long as one is able to legally own a firearm, one is able to build one for PERSONAL use. The firearm they build cannot be sold or given to anyone. If someone builds a firearm to sell, then they fall into the manufacturing category and must be licensed as a manufacturer.
But why ask permission to build a weapon? Are US citizens not free people? Why would we have to ask permission to protect ourselves? We don't live in medieval Europe, we live in the USA.
It's useless as a gun.
But it's _great_ for making fascists lose their fucking minds.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
"Nut bars currently staffing SCOTUS"? You mean judges that rule based on the actual Constitution, laws passed by Congress and long standing precedent? Real nut bars are non-elected judges who decide cases based on personal feelings and the opinions of loud voices rather than being actual judges. Judges are not legislators. They're not the Executive branch. They're arbitrators of standards. SCOTUS judges are not elected for the very reason that they're supposed to put politics to the side, not be persuaded by lobbying and actually make decisions based on rule of law and the arguments made. Their terms last well beyond the time period they were nominated, helping distance them from the politics of today. They're a steady hand, rather than a reactionary one.
But why ask permission to build a weapon? Are US citizens not free people? Why would we have to ask permission to protect ourselves?
This is why, even though I support both gun ownership and gay marriage, if a candidate supports one and opposes the other, I automatically side with the one supporting gay marriage.
I do not need government permission to own a gun. But marriage being a social construct, I kinda do need the government to recognize it.
It's really hilarious to hear liberal states screaming "Tenth Amendment" to the top of their lungs.
Their usual position is that states' rights don't even exist . . . . but now THEY need them.
Gum owners are actually likely to support a fascist dictatorship. Never have they intervened when it actually mattered.
These guys are a fucking liability.
The WWII-era Nazis were mostly fond of taking guns away from people and keeping them only in the hands of the government or Party members.
You should also remember that, in the US, "high ranking Nazi" means "some guy who has a couple of dozen people who sorta do what he says, and a few million people who oppose him."
The people that would be called upon to do all this seizing are the military and police. Do you know any? Because all the ones I know are total and complete libertarian-leaning gun nuts. That whole hypothetical scenario you laid out will not proceed the way you think it will.