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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 mhajicek on Saturday May 09 2015, @04:11AM
Good luck with your .22:
http://www.bob-owens.com/2013/07/alaska-hiker-fired-13-rounds-from-ak-74-into-charging-brown-bear-to-survive-attack/ [bob-owens.com]
BTW, bears climb trees.
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
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
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
> 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
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