Just Dept. Approves Blueprints For Legal 3D Gun Printing

Caleb Tolin | July 18, 2018
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The Justice Department just settled a four-year lawsuit with Defense Distributed, a non-profit, private defense firm, allowing them to release their data and blueprints on how to 3D print a firearm.

The company first released their blueprints for a gun, called the Liberator, in 2013. After the files were downloaded over 100,000 times, the State Department claimed they violated International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) by publishing the designs for the gun.

The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) partnered with Defense Distributed in their defense against the State Department.

In a press release, SAF said they wanted to fight the “attempt to control public speech as an export under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), a Cold War-era law intended to control exports of military articles.”

Finally, after the long legal battle, the two sides settled and the State Department is returning $10,000 in registration dues paid by Defense Distributed and pay the organization's legal fees.

The current blueprints do have another legal flaw. Because they are entirely made out of plastic, they are undetectable at airport stopping points which violates the Undetectable Firearms Act according to CNET.

But Cody Wilson, the founder of Defense Distributed, said he is also selling the Ghost Gunner, a tool used to make key gun parts made out of metal to comply with the UFA.

"For years, anti-gunners have contended that modern semi-automatic sport-utility rifles are so-called 'weapons of war,' and with this settlement, the government has acknowledged they are nothing of the sort," SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb said in the press release.

Wilson told CNET that he will resume publication of his documents on August 1 of this year.

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