8 states sue U.S. over 3-D-printed guns
Eight states filed suit against President Donald Trump’s administration over its decision to allow a Texas company to publish downloadable blueprints for a 3-D-printed gun, contending the hard-to-trace plastic weapons are a boon to terrorists and criminals and threaten public safety.
The suit, filed Monday in Seattle, asks a judge to block the federal government’s late-June settlement with Defense Distributed, which allowed the company to make the plans available online. Officials say that 1,000 people have already downloaded blueprints for AR-15 rifles.
Joining the suit were Democratic attorneys general in Washington state, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Maryland, New York and the District of Columbia.
People can use the blueprints to manufacture a plastic gun using a 3-D printer. Gun industry experts have expressed doubt that criminals would go to the trouble, since 3-D printers are very expensive, the guns themselves tend to disintegrate quickly and traditional firearms are easy to come by.
Cody Wilson, the founder of Defense Distributed, first published downloadable designs for a 3-D-printed firearm in 2013. It was downloaded about 100,000 times until the State Department ordered him to cease, contending it violated federal export laws since some of the blueprints were downloaded by people outside the United States.
The State Department reversed course in late June, agreeing to allow Wilson to resume posting the blueprints. The files were published Friday.