"Politics" behind Defense Department threatening legal action against 3D printed gun?
Will these 3D printed guns be used in the commission of crime? Undoubtedly. But will they also be used for self-defense? Equally surely. If you ban 3D printed guns, how does this change? With law-abiding citizens obeying the law, only criminals will be the ones who get these relatively inexpensive guns.
Is this a civil liberties issue? To me this is a way to lower the cost of people obtaining guns -- a big benefit given that it is poor minorities who live in high crime urban areas who benefit the most from owning guns. Yet, it looks as if the Obama administration is using threats, without a legal basis, to stifle people obtaining these guns.
From Fox News:
Is this a civil liberties issue? To me this is a way to lower the cost of people obtaining guns -- a big benefit given that it is poor minorities who live in high crime urban areas who benefit the most from owning guns. Yet, it looks as if the Obama administration is using threats, without a legal basis, to stifle people obtaining these guns.
From Fox News:
. . . Plans for the working handgun were posted online Monday by Cody Wilson, founder of Defense Distributed, potentially allowing anyone with access to a 3D printer to make a firearm from plastic. The plans, which had been in the works for months, caused alarm among gun control advocates but were seen by some Second Amendment advocates as a breakthrough. More than 100,000 copies of the plans were downloaded before the federal government took the files.
“[Defense Distributed's] files are being removed from public access at the request of the U.S. Department of Defense Trade Controls," read a banner atop the website. "Until further notice, the United States government claims control of the information.”
Wilson tells FoxNews.com that he decided to comply to a request by the Pentagon to take down the gun specs from his website while he weighs his legal options. . . .
Wilson says he has complied to most laws on the books and feels that the D.O.D.'s request may be more politically motivated.
"If this is an attempt to control the info from getting out there, it's clearly a weak one," he said, adding that the CAD design for the weapon has already spread across the Internet at downloading sites like the Pirate Bay. . . .
Labels: 3D Printed Gun, ObamaGunControl
posted by John Lott at 10:52 PM
3 Comments:
As was said in Serenity, "You can't stop the signal".
If the plans are on more than one internet-connected PC, they will live forever....
Why is there not an uproar over the blatant disregard of the First Amendment allowing freedom of speech?
Information, being in printed form, or in digital form in the case of CNC type code is protected speech.
As far as the Feds being able to scrub the web of such info, good luck! It's virtually impossible.
While I agree it could be a cheap way to create your own gun, this is assuming that you own or have access to a 3D printer which I believe are around $10,000 for ones with the ability to print these guns etc.
Here are some other points to consider:
I'm sure if you used a machine lets say at a place where you can hire them by the hour that they will not allow the creation of guns because of the fact they are not licensed gun manufacturers, federally licensed gun dealers or able to do the required background checks.
So unless someone is manufacturing these secretly in a back room someplace, which would surely make them illegal guns, then I'm thinking there would probably be no realistic cost benefit to the poor?
The thing is, even if a friend who had one of these 3D printers were to print one for you, there are bound to be legal ramifications for both parties especially in light of certain Senators calling for legislation on plastic guns.
Post a Comment
<< Home