California Gets Pushback on Proposed 3D Printer Restrictions From Unexpected Place

While so-called “ghost guns” are supposedly a major problem, despite accounting for only a tiny fraction of all firearms recovered by law enforcement, and do not account for any real increase in the homicide rate, the real issue is that criminals don’t care about the law. So while states like California have already banned people from making their own firearms, bad people still do it.

Shocking, I know. Criminals are usually so law-abiding.

Anywho, it seems safe to assume that California anti-gunners didn’t expect a lot of pushback from anyone but the pro-gun voices they’re already used to ignoring. Unfortunately for them, a powerful group within the state that is a major source of funding for anti-gun lawmakers is less than thrilled with the proposal.

But the proposal has drawn opposition from a diverse coalition, which includes civil liberties groups, tech companies and 3-D printing enthusiasts as well as Hollywood effects studios, who argue that “firearm blocking software” will also prohibit legitimate designs and expose makers to government or corporate surveillance.

Inside a San Fernando workshop, Samuel McBride makes movie monsters come to life for the camera. One of his latest creations, an animatronic hand, clutches when he pulls a trigger that he built using a 3-D printer.

McBride says the technology has transformed the work at Legacy Effects, where he is a lab manager, but he’s worried it will soon be off-limits because of a proposed change in California law.

McBride fears the law would interfere with the making of devices like the one that activates his lifelike hand.

“If I just took apart this trigger and put it on a printer, how is anyone, computer or human, going to tell me how I intend to use it?” he asked.

Backers of the proposed law say it has the potential to help save lives.

“As gun violence continues to devastate our communities, we cannot allow 3-D printing technology to become a new pipeline for untraceable weapons,” said Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, the bill’s author.

Critics of the proposed California law note that 3-D printed guns represent a small subset of ghost guns recovered by law enforcement at crime scenes. According to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, most “privately made firearms” recovered by police are assembled from mail-order kits or unfinished parts rather than printed at home.

“This fight is not over whether ghost guns are dangerous,” said David Tobin, an independent creator leading the coalition. “It is over whether the state can or should require a consumer tool to surveil a person’s designs before they are allowed to make something.”

Now, admittedly, these aren’t the big money donors California lawmakers are used to, but if it looks to negatively impact the film industry, some of those might start looking at their bank balances a bit differently before signing a check.

And, to be clear, 3D-printed guns really are just a tiny subset of so-called ghost guns. Plus, the only reason criminals do it is that the media went all in trying to tell everyone how dangerous this was, which just alerted the bad guys to a new business opportunity.

While I can easily argue that all of this is irrelevant since our right to keep and bear arms “shall not be infringed” and all that, the truth is that it’s not a convincing argument to an anti-gun lawmaker. If it were, they wouldn’t be anti-gun in the first place.

So, instead, I need to point out that a recent study tried to link so-called ghost guns to suicides, but found absolutely no link between recoveries of such guns and homicides. In other words, while criminals might buy them, it’s not the only way for any of them to get guns, so even if they disappeared forever, nothing would change in the criminal underworld.

But Hollywood uses 3D printing technology for a lot of stuff that has nothing to do with making a firearm. Moreover, a lot of independent creators exist outside of the established film industry and create their own projects with almost no budget. 3D printers are a boon to these creators because it lets them make props, including some gun-shaped props that aren’t actually firearms.

California’s proposal is a gross overstep even without the Second and First Amendment concerns.

When you couple those with everything else, this should be an absolute non-starter. However, unless the rest of Hollywood threatens to close its purses in upcoming campaigns, the industry will take a hit. Then again, with more of the film industry moving outside of California in the first place, the power move might be more than just closed wallets.

Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.

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