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THIS WEEK MARKS the two-year anniversary since Cody Wilson, the inventor of the world’s first 3-D printable gun, received a letter from the State Department demanding that he remove the blueprints for his plastic-printed firearm from the internet. The alternative: face possible prosecution for violating regulations that forbid the international export of unapproved arms.
Now Wilson is challenging that letter. And in doing so, he’s picking a fight that could pit proponents of gun control and defenders of free speech against each other in an age when the line between a lethal weapon and a collection of bits is blurrier than ever before.
Wilson’s gun manufacturing advocacy group Defense Distributed, along with the gun rights group the Second Amendment Foundation, on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against the State Department and several of its officials, including Secretary of State John Kerry. In their complaint, they claim that a State Department agency called the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) violated their first amendment right to free speech by telling Defense Distributed that it couldn’t publish a 3-D printable file for its one-shot plastic pistol known as the Liberator, along with a collection of other printable gun parts, on its website.
In its 2013 letter to Defense Distributed, the DDTC cited a long-controversial set of regulations known as the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), which controls whether and how Americans can sell weapons beyond U.S. borders. By merely posting a 3-D-printable file to a website, in other words, the DDTC claimed Defense Distributed had potentially violated arms export controls—just as if it had shipped a crate of AR-15s to, say, Mexico. But the group’s lawsuit now argues that whether or not the Liberator is a weapon, its blueprints are “speech,” and that Americans’ freedom of speech is protected online—even when that speech can be used to make a gun with just a few clicks.
http://www.wired.com/2015/05/3-d-printed-gun-lawsuit-starts-war-arms-control-free-speech/
Here’s the full complaint from Defense Distributed: https://www.scribd.com/doc/264435890/Defense-Distributed-et-al-v-U-S-Dept-of-State
(Score: 2) by Alfred on Friday May 08 2015, @04:09PM
Possible unlikely plot twist: they do want him to win, waiting for an accident to boost their sales of real and safer guns. This would have to be balanced with the possibility of using such an accident as leverage against all guns. Nevermind, this plot twist is a wash.
(Score: 3, Funny) by bob_super on Friday May 08 2015, @04:20PM
New plot twist: they help him win. Put blueprints for really dangerous weapons online, which a psycho uses to murder children in their classroom. Instantly, the president rushes to do ... nothing.
Crap, another dead end!
New plot twist: blue prints are used by Ze Eeevil Terrorizts to attack a gun show. Proud citizens mow them down (and each other a bit) with one of the few legal machineguns! Yay for citizens! Boo for Terrorists! Yay for all auto machineguns to become legal again! Ban 3D printers as terrorist tools!
Now we've got something!
(Score: 2) by rts008 on Saturday May 09 2015, @03:55AM
That is the craziest, most ridiculous, unpossible scenario I have heard in a while.
And since I have been paying attention to the recent congress critter's campaigning, I truly think you may have nailed it.
30 or 40 years ago, if someone would have described the world we live in today to me back then, I would have immediately asked them for a hook-up with their drug dealer... that must be some good shit, man!
The 1960's and early 1970's were wilder and whoolier than today, especially actually having terrorist groups active in the US. Malcolm X, Black Panthers, PLA, PLO, Baeder-Meinhoff, KKK, and many more. Alphabet soup!(mostly 'homegrown' groups in the US, but YMMV)
We had weekly betting pools on airline highjackings, for Murphy's sakes! Really.
Then, Vietnam protests(Kent State), race riots, bussing, desegregation, and a lot of other wacky shit..all at the same time it seemed.
But no PATRIOT Act, Dept. of Homeland Security(would have sounded too 'commie' back then), or TSA hassling troops returning from combat(with weapons) about fingernail clippers. About the most we had was the CIA drug-running in SE Asia, and J. Edgar Hoover's FBI chasing commies all over.(and everbody was looking for Jimmy Hoffa)
Crazy, but fun times.
It might be getting old, but the way things look presently, I'm a bit concerned about our gov't. Crazy, but not so fun times.
The past few months have seen a few bright spots, so all hope is not lost.