A Texas company will be able to legally publish blueprints for 3-D printed guns online starting on Wednesday.
The blueprints for the plastic guns were created by Defense Distributed led by founder Cody Wilson, and include designs for a plastic AR-15 semiautomatic assault rifle, a weapon used in many mass shootings in the US, as well as other firearms.
The group first published 3-D printable gun blueprints online in 2013 but was told to take them down by the government, leading Wilson to sue in 2015 claiming his First Amendment and Second Amendment rights had been violated.
On Friday a federal judge denied gun control groups’ efforts to block 3-D printable gun designs from being published online, a plastic 3-D printed gun pictured above in 2013
In June a settlement between Defense Distributed and the US government allowed the company to legally publish gun blueprints online, leading a coalition of gun control groups to file an appeal Thursday to block the Trump administration’s ruling.
However US District Judge Robert Pitman denied the request for an order on Friday in Austin, Texas.
Although Judge Pitman said he was sympathetic to gun control group concerns, he questioned their legal standing in the case and added he would explain the reasons behind his decision in a written order to come.
The government had until recently argued the blueprints posed a national security risk.
Gun control groups – including the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, Everytown for Gun Safety and the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence – said there has been no explanation for the administration’s abrupt reversal on the issue.
The State Department will allow Wilson to start posting his 3-D printable firearm blueprints on his website starting Wednesday August 1, according to CBS.
Friday’s decision means that Defense Distributed will be legally allowed to share their gun blueprints online starting Wednesday August 1, founder Cody Wilson pictured above
After a legal battle the company will be allowed to go forth with their controversial blueprints starting Wednesday August 1, the plastic 3-D printed gun pictured in use above
In court filings the gun control groups said that not halting the blueprint distribution would ’cause immediate and irreparable harm to the United States national security’.
‘The stated goal of Defense Distributed is to sound the death knell for gun control,’ David Cabello, a lawyer for the Brady Center, told Pitman during the hearing.
Joshua Blackman, a lawyer for Defense Distributed, said he was grateful for the judge’s ruling.
Defense Distributed founder Wilson, a self-declared Texas anarchist, said in an online video that the blueprints were downloaded more than 400,000 times before they were taken down in 2013.
Lawrence Keane, general counsel for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association for gun manufacturers, told Reuters concerns over 3-D printable guns were overblown.
‘I don’t see it likely at all that criminals will use this clunky and expensive technology,’ Keane said. The NSSF is not involved in the case.