A federal judge issued a nationwide injunction yesterday barring a Texas company from making available data for 3D-printed guns. The blueprints allow anyone to manufacture firearms at home that are untraceable and whose owners are not screened.
The owner of the firm, Cody Wilson, criticized the decision and vowed to fight it. “What I’m doing is legally protected. … I will go to the appellate level. I will go to the Supreme Court. I will waste all my time,” he told CBS News.
Wilson’s company, Austin-based Defense Distributed, reached an agreement with the federal government in June that allowed it to make the plans available for download from the Internet at the end of July. Today’s order from U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik in Seattle halted those plans. “There is a possibility of irreparable harm because of the way these guns can be made,” Lasnik said.
But Wilson already published schematics for ten firearms models starting last Friday. The blueprints for an AR-15 rifle has already been downloaded thousands of times Wilson said.
“The debate is over. The guns are downloadable. The files are in the public domain. You cannot take them back. You can adjust your politics to this reality. You will not ask me to adjust mine,” he said.
Wilson, an ardent Second Amendment advocate, believes he is advancing the Constitutional Rights of Americans. “I think access to the firearm is a fundamental human dignity. It’s a fundamental human right,” he said.
The lawsuit against Wilson’s company was brought by Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who called the ruling “a complete, total victory.”
“We were asking for a nationwide temporary restraining order putting a halt to this outrageous decision by the federal government to allow these 3D downloadable guns to be available around our country and around the world. He granted that relief,” Ferguson said at a news conference. “That is significant.”
“It makes no damn sense. No damn sense at all to make those available,” he added.
A group of Democratic lawmakers introduced legislation this week that would ban plans for 3D guns to be posted online. “These ghost guns are a menace. The failure to ban them will mean blood on the hands of officials who have that responsibility. I call on the Trump administration now to do the right thing,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said at a press conference yesterday.
President Trump said he would review the matter. “I am looking into 3-D Plastic Guns being sold to the public. Already spoke to NRA, doesn’t seem to make much sense!” he wrote on Twitter yesterday.
The machines that create the guns measure a few square feet in size. They are also relatively inexpensive at $2,000 each. Defense Distributed sells their machines pre-loaded with design files for firearms. Wilson says there is currently a three-month backlog.
Photo by Defense Distributed