On Monday, a federal judge in Seattle extended a ban on Austin-based company Defense Distributed posting 3D gun files despite the company’s express authorization from the State Department.
After Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson, 30, won his multi-year lawsuit against the State Department in July, which gave him a license to continue to post blueprints online for 3D-printable guns, Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson, accompanied by the District of Columbia and 18 other state attorneys general (Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania) sued Defense Distributed and the Trump administration to essentially void the DOJ-approved settlement.
Ferguson argued that the technical data being posted online is a threat to national security, though the files are already available online and have been for years, and claimed that the data could be turned into “undetectable” firearms, though Wilson’s Liberator pistol plans require a piece of metal to be functional, and undetectable firearms are already illegal via the Undetectable Firearms Act of 1988.
U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik sided with Ferguson, et al. by extending the restraining order until the case is resolved. Lasnik claimed Wilson “wanted to post the plans online so that citizens can arm themselves without having to deal with licenses, serial numbers and registrations,” according to the Associated Press.
“It is the untraceable and undetectable nature of these small firearms that poses a unique danger,” said Lasnik. “Promising to detect the undetectable while at the same time removing a significant regulatory hurdle to the proliferation of these weapons — both domestically and internationally — rings hollow and in no way ameliorates, much less avoids, the harms that are likely to befall the states if an injunction is not issued.”
“While the court appreciates the earnestness with which this commitment was made at oral argument, it is of small comfort to know that, once an undetectable firearm has been used to kill a citizen of Delaware or Rhode Island or Vermont, the federal government will seek to prosecute a weapons charge in federal court while the state pursues a murder conviction in state court,” Lasnik added.
Ferguson responded to the news by bashing the Trump administration.
“Once again, I’m glad we put a stop to this dangerous policy,” he said. “But I have to ask a simple question: why is the Trump administration working so hard to allow these untraceable, undetectable 3D-printed guns to be available to domestic abusers, felons and terrorists?”
“FARCE,” Wilson responded online, posting a portion of the ruling.
Wilson was first forced to take down the 3D gun files when the feds treated his speech as an export, thus violating the ITAR. Arguing on First and Second Amendment grounds, Wilson won his suit in July and posted the technical data on July 27, as he was permitted, before again being forced to remove the files.
On Sunday, Wilson posted an ominous tweet seemingly in anticipation of the ruling:
Related: DOJ Settles In Landmark Gun Suit, Safeguarding The Second Amendment