The Idiocy of Trying to Ban Possession of 3D Printer Files

I’m part of the last generation to grow up without the internet. That didn’t really happen until the 1990s, and much of the popularity that followed was well after my high school years. Yes, I’m old. 

I was still young enough to embrace this new technology. I remember the early days when it was difficult to find stuff on the internet, especially with the terrible search engines we had available, but then stuff changed. We had Google make it easier to find whatever you were looking for–it sucks now, for the record–and then we got social media where it was easy to connect to folks and build relationships.

So I understand the internet and how it works about as well as anyone who doesn’t get into the technical aspects in and of themselves probably can.

Which is why the push from some anti-gun states to prohibit the files for 3D printers that allow people to make their own firearms and accessories is absolutely idiotic.

Proving that some folks aren’t sure how the internet works, several states are striving to make it harder to make firearms and firearm components privately. 

In recent news from California, New Jersey, and New York, blue state prosecutors and lawmakers are making an extra effort to curb the availability of digital gun plans and devices that can help legally produce home-built guns, which are allowed under federal law. 

In New Jersey, the Democrat-controlled state Assembly passed A4975 last month in a 50-26 roll call along party lines. The bill makes it a crime to possess digital instructions to manufacture guns and gun components, including receivers or magazines. Under the proposal, a person who is not licensed or registered to manufacture firearms but possesses any digital firearm instructions is guilty of a fourth-degree felony, which is punishable by up to 18 months in jail and a fine of up to $10,000.

Meanwhile, in New York, Manhattan’s Democrat District Attorney Alvin Bragg has penned a letter to Creality, a Chinese 3D printer maker – one of the largest in the world – to urge the company to do more to block its machines from having the capability to make gun components. Further, Bragg wants Creality to police its cloud community for such CAD files. 

That first sentence, though, says it all.

Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that the Constitution doesn’t apply for a moment. In such a case, you can make anything you want illegal. You can prohibit anything at all.

What you can’t do, though, is stop people who don’t respect the law.

Now, here in the real world where there is a Constitution and the right to keep and bear arms is supposed to be protected by the Second Amendment, there are major problems with such laws beyond the fact that they don’t work, especially since making your own gun has been legal since well before the founding of this nation. I think one would be hard-pressed to find a law from the time of the founding that would serve as an analog.

So there’s that.

But we also have to acknowledge just how ridiculous the law is with regard to preventing criminals from doing anything. I mean, this is the era of the internet. People can find whatever they want.

Even sites that try to prohibit people from IP addresses in those states–which may impact people living just across state lines or others who have IP addresses that may not accurately pinpoint their homes–will run into an issue because VPNs can be set to make it appear you live in a completely different state.

You can’t stop the signal.

Yeah, the law will allow prosecution of people who happen to have these files, but so what? How are they going to enforce it unless they’re tipped off that someone has these files? They’re not. How will they most likely get tipped off that someone has them? They’re using them to print gun parts and likely selling them.

By then, they’ve already broken the state laws against printing the guns in the first place, so the damage is done.

Yes, this is idiotic.

But then again, considering which states are looking at this, nothing at all should be shocking about the idiocy.