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In August of 2018, facebook was accused of banning the distribution of computer files associated with the printing of 3D firearms.  From 3dprintingindustry.com: According to numerous sources, Facebook released a statement saying: “Sharing instructions on how to print firearms using 3D printers is not allowed under our Community Standards,” This was always an overreach by Facebook. Information on how to make guns has been freely available, offline in printed form, for centuries. The idea that files on how to make 3D printed plastic guns are somehow verboten are a direct assault on the distribution of legal information. From another, pragmatic...

(I posted this topic yesterday and we had started a good discussion, though it was removed because the headline was incorrect. It incorrectly read the senate passed a bill banning 3D-printed guns, but it did not yet. I'd like to pick this discussion up again:) With the election cycle heating up, some Democratic hopefuls are beginning to propose more gun control legislation. U.S. Senator Time Kaine (D-VA) recently called on the Senate and Virginia's own Assembly to outlaw the distribution of instructions for 3D-printing firearms. This call is likely in direct response to the Trump administration's refusal to block such...

A federal judge on Monday granted a preliminary injunction to a coalition of states seeking to block a Texas-based company from posting online blueprints for how to make 3D-printed guns. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Robert S. Lasnik followed an initial temporary restraining order he granted in late July that blocked the federal government from implementing terms of a settlement the company, Defense Distributed, struck with the State Department earlier this year that would have allowed founder Cody Wilson to start posting the files again. The ruling Monday means the blockade will continue while the judge considers the broader...

The former “My Name is Earl” actress and current gun control activist denounced the increased availability of 3-D printed gun files this week. In an opinion piece for CNN entitled, “A 3D printed gun is downloadable death” and a follow-up Anderson Cooper interview, Milano argued that public safety is at risk due to the recent settlement with Cody Wilson’s Defense Distributed Group in which the federal government granted an exception in State Department arms control regulations to allow the files to go live to a broader audience. “It is not hyperbole to say that this could mean the end of...

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is doing his part to derail the government's settlement with Cody Wilson's Defense Distributed by suggesting 3D gun printers allow someone to copy a "fully semiautomatic weapon." [Snip] According to the NRA-ILA, Schumer reacted to the State Department's settlement with Wilson’s Defense Distributed by saying, "America is going to get a lot less safe." He added that 3D-printed firearms are not only scary, they're outright dangerous in the way they can mimic the "look and the capacity of a hardened, fully semiautomatic weapon." Schumer's words are reminiscent of a CNN report wherein AR-15s were described as...

Those handy digital blueprints that enable anyone to 3D print gun parts or even a weapon from scratch could be under threat thanks to a new proposal from the State Department. A notice posted on June 3rd in a recent Federal Register show that some changes are being made to the International Traffic in Arms (ITAR) regulations. Hidden within the proposal, which restricts what gear, technology, and info can and cannot be exported out of the US, is a ban on posting schematics for 3D printed gun parts online. The ruling comes just a month after Cody Wilson and, his...

Cody Wilson had a vision to forward the digital revolution by creating the nation’s first firearm on a 3-D printer, and, taking a page from WikiLeaks, share the blueprints with the world via the Internet in what he called the “Wiki Weapons project.” Now he is suing the federal government in hopes of keeping his dream on target - and staying out of prison. Wilson was so taken with the idea, he dropped out of law school and designed "The Liberator," the nation’s first pistol built exclusively on a 3-D printer, consisting of 12 separate parts made from plastic and...