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posted by CoolHand on Friday May 08 2015, @12:02PM   Printer-friendly
from the right-to-make-arms dept.

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

 
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  • (Score: 2) by mhajicek on Friday May 08 2015, @09:15PM

    by mhajicek (51) on Friday May 08 2015, @09:15PM (#180479)

    Shoot a bear or a wild boar with a .22 and you'll be lucky to live.

    --
    The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
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  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday May 08 2015, @10:15PM

    by bob_super (1357) on Friday May 08 2015, @10:15PM (#180515)

    I'll take that bet if I get to choose the tree I'm shooting from.

    But my point was that unless you've already pissed off the bear, a warning shot is typically enough noise to convince him to go wander elsewhere. Living alongside dangerous animals doesn't require that you carry enough power to blow them to smithereens with each of the 36 rounds in your oversize clip.

    • (Score: 2) by mhajicek on Saturday May 09 2015, @04:11AM

      by mhajicek (51) on Saturday May 09 2015, @04:11AM (#180631)
      --
      The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
      • (Score: 1) by WillAdams on Monday May 11 2015, @01:09PM

        by WillAdams (1424) on Monday May 11 2015, @01:09PM (#181450)

        Actually, the largest bear taken in North America was a Kodiak, taken w/ a single shot by a .22 Long (_not_ Long Rifle) --- a woman's sled dog team was threatened by it, she got out her rifle and dropped the bear w/ a single shot to the heart.

        • (Score: 2) by mhajicek on Tuesday May 12 2015, @02:05AM

          by mhajicek (51) on Tuesday May 12 2015, @02:05AM (#181752)

          Interesting, but one case of someone pulling it off doesn't make it a recommended practice.

          --
          The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
      • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday May 11 2015, @04:00PM

        by bob_super (1357) on Monday May 11 2015, @04:00PM (#181508)

        > BTW, bears climb trees.

        You win the predictable answer award.
        Do bears climb trees when you're above them shooting them in the face/arms? Most animals are a lot less stupid than humans.

        • (Score: 2) by mhajicek on Tuesday May 12 2015, @02:01AM

          by mhajicek (51) on Tuesday May 12 2015, @02:01AM (#181749)

          Yes. I actually did some research before posting my response. Did you, or is this all conjecture?

          --
          The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek