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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.
They'll lose in the Supreme Court. This isn't just a Second Amendment issue, it's a First Amendment issue foremost.
DD's lawyer is going to be famous after this case.
Every september libraries have what is called "Banned Books Week"
This is to highlight the problem with banning books and remind everyone that this is a terrible idea.
I think we've firmly established, over and over, that banning books does not work.
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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
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Certainly an upgrade from my current 2D gun. Very difficult to aim accurately.
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.
I think that Washington's attorney general is confusing the right to publish with being responsible for what you publish. It is extremely hard to restrain speech in the U.S. prior to publication.
The Pentagon Papers were relevant to national security and there could not be prior restraint on publishing those. https://legal-dictionary.thefr...
Some state attorney generals willies about someone 3D printing a gun isn't even close to a national security issue. Stopping the information from being posted until a final adjudication should be nigh-on impossible.
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.
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.
It's prior restraint, something that the courts deeply frown upon.
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.
You don't even need any "metal shop" tools to make a gun. That just helps to make a better one. My nephew and I assembled one from metal plumbing parts a few days ago. It took about half an hour, with nothing but hand tools.
Guns have been around since the 1300s, around the same time the hourglass was invented. Which shows they can be built with tools and equipment less advanced than what Columbus had on board the Santa Maria.
because it's a completely false sense of security. Fascists couldn't care less about your semi or even full auto rifles. By the time you're at the point where you're considering violence as a solution to Fascism it's much too late. They'll have seized control of the army and the food supply and the army will do what they're told like they always have so long as they've got pay and food. And you will not win against an organized army, let alone a modern one with the backing of the state.
And don't point out the Taliban. We're letting them have that 40%. We got the important parts (the oil pipeline we wanted).
If you want to prevent fascism you need to strip them of their favorite tool for seizing power: poverty. Seriously, look at every single fascist dictatorship and they all started with desperate poverty and an aristocracy that was abusing the working class.
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