3D printed gun downloads blocked

3D printed gun downloads blocked by federal judge

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik issued a temporary restraining order Tuesday to stop the release of blueprints for 3D printers to make plastic guns.

Eight Democratic attorneys general filed a lawsuit Monday seeking to block the settlement allowing the plans to be made available online. They said the plastic weapons are a boon to terrorists and criminals and threaten public safety.

Democrats are calling on President Donald Trump to reverse an administration decision to allow a Texas company to make blueprints for a 3D-printed gun available online. They say if he doesn’t, “blood will be on his hands.”

Trump said he was “looking into” the issue and consulting with the National Rifle Association.

After a years-long court battle, the State Department in late June settled a case against a Texas company that wants to provide directions that would allow people to computer-print their own guns. The settlement, which took gun-control advocates by surprise, allowed Austin-based Defense Distributed to resume posting blueprints for the hard-plastic guns at the end of July.

Hours before the restraining order was issued, Democrats sounded the alarm, warning about “ghost guns” that can avoid detection and pose a deadly hazard.

“All you need is a little money and you can download a blueprint from the internet to make a gun at home,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. “No background check. No criminal history check.”

New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood said Monday, "It is, simply, crazy to give criminals the tools to build untraceable, undetectable 3D-printed guns at the touch of a button. Yet that's exactly what the Trump administration is allowing."

The company’s website said downloads would begin Wednesday, but blueprints for at least one gun — a plastic pistol called the Liberator — have been posted on the site since Friday. A lawyer for the company said he didn’t know how many blueprints had been downloaded since then.