Proposed regulation could keep 3D-printed gun blueprints offline for good
May
5, 2013: A 3D printed gun created by Defense Distributed is
successfully test fired by creator Cody Wilson. Wilson had posted the
blueprints for the gun online but was ordered by the Federal Government
to take them down. (Defense Distributed)
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 group Defense Distributed filed a
lawsuit against the federal government for forcing them to remove
blueprints of the “Liberator” 3D-printed gun of off their website.
Wilson described the move as a violation of First Amendment Rights and
believes that the new mandate is a direct response to his lawsuit.
“This is a direct action on behalf of the Obama administration to
control public speech about guns on the Internet,” Wilson told
FoxNews.com. “They cynically redefine any posting of any technical data
to be an ‘export,’ and thereby claim that it isn't speech. It's surreal
and they're getting away with it.”
“It's speech control to regulate the gun culture. It's not coming,
like some are suggesting. It is here and I've been threatened with it
and complete ruin for over two years.”
- Cody Wilson, Defense Distributed
In the public notice, the State Department revises the definition of
export in an attempt to “remove activities associated with a defense
article’s further movement or release outside the United States.”
Included in the new provision is “technical data” posted on the Internet.
“By putting up a digital file, that constitutes an export of the
data,” a senior State Department official told FoxNews.com. “If it’s an
executable digital file, any foreign interests can get a hold of it.
“These proposed definition changes are part of our broader effort to
streamline and modernize a Cold War era regulatory system to better
safeguard against illicit attempts to procure sensitive U.S. defense
technologies under Export Control Reform.”
The official added that the proposed definition changes have been in
the works for several years, ever since President Obama announced his
Export Control Initiative in 2009 and that these changes in definition
seek to account for technologies not foreseen - like 3D-printing -- when
these regulations were initially developed.
However, Wilson says that it’s a back door way to ramp up gun control stateside.
“It's speech control to regulate the gun culture,” he told
FoxNews.com. “It's not coming, like some are suggesting. It is here and
I've been threatened with it and complete ruin for over two years.”
Public comments will be taken and considered by both the departments
of State and Commerce regarding the Export Control Reform Initiative
until
August 3rd.
Defense Distributed is a not-for-profit group founded by Wilson, a
former law student at the University of Texas who came into the public
eye after creating the world’s first 3D-printed gun from scratch. He has
said in the past that the “Liberator” project was intended to highlight
how technology can render laws and governments all but irrelevant.
His publishing of the printable blueprints online instantly sparked
outrage in the U.S. with several politicians calling for national
legislation for an outright ban on 3D-printed guns.
"Security checkpoints, background checks and gun regulations will do
little good if criminals can print plastic firearms at home and bring
those firearms through metal detectors with no one the wiser,"
Congressman Steve Israel said in
May 2013.
"When I started talking about the issue of plastic firearms months
ago, I was told the idea of a plastic gun is science-fiction," he added.
"Now that this technology is proven, we need to act now to extend the
ban on plastic firearms."
Wilson was ordered soon after to remove the liberator digital designs
from the Defense Distributed website, prompting him and his group to
file a lawsuit against the Federal Government.
The 3D gunsmith and his supporters have maintained that he has
complied with laws and feel that the request from the Defense Trade
Controls agency, a branch of the Department of State, may be politically
motivated.
“Defense Distributed is being penalized for trying to educate the
public about 3-D guns,” Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Washington-based
Second Amendment Foundation, whose organization is backing Defense
Distributed in a court action told FoxNews.com when word of the lawsuit
was made public
last May.
