A belated legal scramble to stop public access to 3-D printed gun blueprints[1] has succeeded, at least for now. Late Tuesday, a federal judge granted a temporary nationwide injunction against Defense Distributed from making its designs available online. Several hours after the ruling, Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson has finally complied.
The suit, filed Monday by the attorneys general of eight states and the District of Columbia, is just one of several last-ditch legal efforts to prevent the spread of 3-D printed gun plans. Last month, the State Department settled a long-standing Wilson lawsuit[2], opening the door for Defense Distributed to put blueprints and CAD models for most guns online. At that point, all someone would need to create an unregulated, lethal weapon[3] is a 3-D printer and an internet connection.
'The law is clear. My settlement and license are not judicially reviewable.'
Cody Wilson, Defense Distributed
The challenges to the State Department accelerated as Wilson’s August 1 deadline for placing the plans online approached. In addition to the suit that spurred the injunction, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, as well as the city of Los Angeles, had issued successful cease and desist letters against Defense Distributed. Several Democratic lawmakers have proposed legislation to prevent 3-D printed gun proliferation, although odds of passage appear slim in a GOP-controlled Congress. Nearly two dozen states are separately suing Defense Distributed and the State Department in an effort to rescind the settlement. Even President Donald Trump got in on the action, issuing a vague tweet Tuesday morning that 3-D printed gun availability “doesn’t seem to make much sense.”
On Tuesday, those efforts notched their most significant win yet. “There is a possibility of irreparable harm because of the way these guns can be made,”