Democrats in Washington are advancing a bill that targets the use of 3D printers for making gun parts. HB 2320 was amended before it was voted out by the House Civil Right and Judiciary Committee, but not enough to make the legislation palatable to those who appreciate our First, Second, and Fifth Amendment rights.
As NRA-ILA describes the legisilation:
House Bill 2320 attempts to prohibit the private use of 3-D printers and milling machines for manufacturing firearms and firearms parts that are already illegal or restricted under state law. This bill also prohibits the possession of digital instruction files and/or code related to firearm components by private individuals…
The title of this bill is misleading the public. This bill isn’t just about use of 3D machines and digital codes to manufacture firearms, it contains a catch-all stating that the manufacture/assembly of any of the regulated items by “other means” is also prohibited. This bill sets forth a dangerous precedent for enforcement and policing of the internet by state officials and raises concerns regarding an individual’s protection from self-incrimination.
HB 2320 isn’t quite as onerous as New York’s budget bill, which includes a provision that would require all 3D printers sold in or shipped to New York to come with “blocking technology” that can scan every piece of code used to create 3D printed objects and block the printing of anything an algorithm determines is meant for a gun. Unfortunately for Washington residents, HB 2321 does contain that language, and it’s resulted in a lot of controversy among both gun owners and makers who use 3D printers more generally.
Adafruit Industries recently posted a blog detailing just how unworkable and impractical these bills really are.
The short version: 3D printers don’t have the processing power to analyze what they’re printing, and even if they did, the analysis would be wildly unreliable. A gun safety switch looks like a door switch. A spring is a spring. Guns are just mechanical objects, and their parts overlap with thousands of legitimate uses.
Blocking and listing known files? One tiny modification defeats it. Cloud-based screening? Most printers aren’t even internet-connected, and the ones that are, don’t want to be, hah. And here’s the real kicker… desktop 3D printers can trace their collective origin stories to open source designs. The firmware is hackable. Any screening mandate would be circumvented by a single software update.
It’s undeniably true that it’s become a lot easier to build your own gun thanks to advances in 3D printing. It’s also undeniably true that the national tradition of gun ownership in this country encompasses home-built firearms, so any law that seeks to wipe them out of existence is going to have trouble from a Second Amendment standpoint.
3D-printed guns may be popular with some criminals, but guns made the old fashioned way are by far their weapon of choice, and the Supreme Court has already said that arms in common use can’t be banned, even if they’re also commonly used by criminals and not just peaceable gun owners.
Instead of creating a law that would kill off 3D printing entirely in the name of fighting crime, these lawmakers need to quit looking to reduce the supply and start reducing the demand for these guns among violent criminals. The best way to do that, of course, is to increase the punishment for violent crimes, but that’s a non-starter for the Democrats in control of the Washington and New York legislatures. Instead, they’ll use their anti-2A extremism to target the lawful manufacture of home-built guns and every other legitimate use for 3D printers while continuing to excuse those who are committing crimes of violence.
Editor’s Note: The anti-gun left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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