“The information is already out there. It takes seconds to locate. His order is the equivalent of ordering the government to block a gun store’s website without touching the vast bulk of gun sales information already on the web. And note what else the judge did. He extended federal regulations designed to deal with the proliferation of weapons abroad to apply here at home. He changed the law. He modified its purpose and scope to match the intentions of the litigants in his courtroom. Once again, a federal judge has overstepped his constitutional bounds.” – David French in A Federal Judge Launches a Futile, Unconstitutional Effort to Block Blueprints for 3D-Printed Guns [via nationalreview.com]

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

59 COMMENTS

  1. Nothing like Supreme SJW/Libtard activist Judges…We have a lot of these individuals in the New England states….

    • This case doesn’t really have anything to do with the Second Amendment, the judge’s flawed rationale notwithstanding. This is a First Amendment case, and the question is whether the central government can ban an individual from publishing something of which it disapproves. In this case, the judge disapproval of firearms is so great that he is willing to censor free speech. That ruling is clearly unconstitutional and will not stand.

      • BINGO!!

        It’s not a 2A case, it’s a 1A case. And nobody ever loses a 1A case.

        All DD did was take information that was universally and publicly available and make it available in another form.

  2. I guess since we can’t download this POS “gun” from his website the “death of American gun control” will have to wait. LOL

    • This one finds Statisevil’s comment to be witty and humorous…..In all honesty though, anyone thinking that the proliferation of 3D printed gun files being widely disseminated will obviate gun control, is truly laughable. As to why the antis picked this hill to “die” on is anybody’s guess. Victory for them is unlikely, and any type of win would be nothing but symbolic on either side.

      As has been edified here numerous times, said files have been available for years. Also, any firearm developed from said plans and made of plastic will be subpar to other more practical alternatives. However, the general populace at large doesn’t realize this. Therefore the only option for either side will be to spin, spin, spin the outcome.

      • “Also, any firearm developed from said plans and made of plastic will be subpar to other more practical alternatives.”

        I wonder when they’ll develop a printer that can make the parts out of metal. That would be the tipping point for me to spend the money on one of these.

        • “I wonder when they’ll develop a printer that can make the parts out of metal. That would be the tipping point for me to spend the money on one of these.”

          Such printers exist. Used in aerospace (and maybe some medical circumstances). Prohibitively expensive (printer and materials) for individuals, to date. The advances in 3-D printing seems to have simply amazing.

        • The only thing that prevents someone from building their own firearm (CNC, 3D, or by-hand) is the need to do so. While firearms are a real constitutional right, a lawful citizen does not need to make their own firearm. It sounds like a fun project, though.

          • “a lawful citizen does not need to make their own firearm.”

            Let me be the first….what has “need” to do with anything?

        • What, are none of you paying attention to DD’s $1200 CNC machine specifically designed to convert 80% lowers (also produced and distributed by DD) to complete and functional *metal* lowers when attached to your computer and DD downloaded software? Yeah, it’s not a “printer”, but it is at least as much of what is being screeched about as plastic guns. You can, in fact, build many, many guns without serial numbers and which the gubt does not know about. REAL ones, which will fire tens of thousands of rounds instead of dozens. Order the rest of the parts, upper comes already headspaced, ready to combine with lower and begin firing. No serial number anywhere. And completely legal!

        • LarryinTX,

          Unless you know about some older machine of theirs, you need to update your current price for a ghost gunner machine…from their website:
          “The Ghost Gunner 2 full price is $2,000 before shipping. ($100 flat rate shipping). Your deposit will account for $250 of that price.”

        • Saw one on CBS this morning. Supposedly it “prints guns.”
          Started with reporter in a LGS, holding an AR-15. Then he moves down the counter to the CNC machine. Then there’s a clip of someone firing an AR that has a white (plastic?) lower. Finally back to the reporter who says the programs already in the CNC machine can “print the gun.” My bet is this will mill an 80% lower.

        • If you use PLA to make your parts, say the AR15 lower that should eventually appear again if you did not already have it you can use them as ” lost wax casting models” substituting PLA for the wax. Use natural PLA not colored and add additional pieces of wax to the model to allow expansion of the PLA as it expands. Add them in a way that is easy to remove with a cutting wheel later on. Otherwise your mold will burst or crack. Burnout is similar to wax but smells a lot nicer and while you should be able to sling cast a lower I’ll use a vacuum caster if I try to make one. I’ve tried PLA for jewelry and while it does work I found it easier to just work in wax. But for parts it is very handy and I could see it working fine for making aluminum lowers.
          I am tempted to look when he comes back up and see if they still have the 10-22 receiver and give it a try with lost PLA casting.
          The other method would require figuring shrinkage, they said 7% but that will depend on your sintering temp etc and requires some fairly expensive items. Lost PLA will require some sort of method to burnout the mold, a method to melt metal and a method to force the molten metal into the mold. All items I already own and all items a handy person could create versions of fairly easily. Just make sure when you make the homemade sling caster on a rope that you are in a open area when you start slinging it.

      • If the leftist insist on spending their money fighting something they are unlikely to win, I say we should not interrupt them. The more money they spend on these causes, the less they can spend elsewhere.

        • True, but much of their research is trying to find ways to make the *taxpayer* pay for his own enslavement.

        • Perhaps a legal mandate that all firearms parts be registered, serialized and subject to a background check. It could be a potential goal, especially when discussing these “untraceable” and “undetectable” firearms. The only way to ensure some type of control now would be to regulate additional parts that aren’t yet feasible to “print”. Like nails, pipe and springs lol. Oh yeah, not to mention serializing each and every case, bullet and primer. Also unique chemical markers added to each and every nitrocellulose charge. Such would be any anti-gunners wet dream.

          • Like the Easter Bunny, so many adult children believe guns can be traced, after the fact, to an unknown criminal. I think the FBI has recorded, like, zero incidents of such? (maybe a few). Local news claimed that all legal guns can be traced not only to a criminal, but the unknown scene of an unreported crime. And, of course, if the gun used in a crime is not found, the bullets can be traced to the gun someday when it is used for another crime, and then that missing gun can be traced directly to both criminals.

        • @Sam I Am:

          Indeed, the media and general public at large tend to be rather ignorant of the laws regarding FFL requirements, record keeping and firearms sales. Not to mention the ineptitude of oversized federal agencies like the BATFE. This ignorance no doubt, accounts for the purported “majority” support of UBCs among the populace.

          Esoteric Inanity doesn’t recall the numbers of crimes solved with the aid of a gun registry. However, like Sam I Am, he recollects very few incidents if any that were solved or prosecuted solely on information obtained from said registry. This is much like FISA, while various bureaucrats and politicians feverishly proclaim the essentiality of such programs, there is little data to suggest their efficacy.

          Regarding crime guns and murder weapons, typically said instrument will be present at the crime scene or in possession of the suspect. When this isn’t the case, then no amount of data in a registry will link an unknown to any crime as there is only one point of reference when two are required. Arguing otherwise is sophistry. Besides, to get a conviction in a modern court, the murder weapon isn’t even necessary.

          In conclusion, Esoteric Inanity has an anecdote to share that highlights the futility of such a topic: Years ago, this one met a man at a local gun show that relayed a potentially apocryphal tale of his third cousin’s husband. For purposes of this story the man shall be called Dan.

          One day in May back in the mid 1990s, Dan was looking around for arrowheads along a drainage area just north off I-70, this is east of Grand Junction Colorado. He stumbled upon a S&W 559 partially sticking out of the mud. Like any decent law abiding citizen would do, Dan cleaned it up and took the gun into the Grand Junction PD to have the gun’s serial number ran and see if it had either been reported stolen or used in a crime. The gun came back clean and its last recorded sale was from a pawn shop in Missouri 5-6 years prior with no record of who bought it.Thus, the firearm was returned to Dan.

          About two weeks later, Dan received a call from the GJ PD inquiring as to whether or not he still possessed the gun. When Dan responded in the affirmative, he was told that he would have to surrender the firearm as law enforcement in Denver had contacted them for it. As it ostensibly turned out, Denver PD claimed that said gun had gone missing from an evidence locker before formally being logged in. Once again Dan, like any decent law abiding citizen, took the gun back to the GJ PD where it was relinquished and sent to the Denver PD.

          Ironically, several months later Dan got another call from the Grand Junction PD. They told him that he could come get his gun if he wanted it, as there had been a mix up. Purportedly, the Denver PD had found the “missing” evidence locker gun, a S&W 659 with an ostensibly similar serial number. Yeah, hard to believe anyone could be that stupid.

          Now for the best part of the story. When Dan showed up to take the gun back, it was nowhere to be found. The Denver PD has failed to send the gun as it had been “lost”.

  3. ‘Once again, a federal judge has overstepped his constitutional bounds.’

    Imagine that!

  4. How can a judge in Seattle force a business in Texas to do anything while a panel of judges in Hawaii only effect the states in the west? Seems to me that only a judge in the circuit Texas resides in would be able to effect DD, while SCOTUS could effect all of the states and territories.

    • Excellent question. I was thinking along the same lines, shouldn’t this ruling require DD to post a notice that people in Seattle (or wherever) are not allowed to download these plans, then go right on ahead, otherwise? Then Seattle can enforce all day long, not my problem.

      • It was a federal judge that issued the injunction. The federal courthouse is in Seattle. Washington’s attorney general filed the suit. His office is in Olympia.
        The city of Seattle has nothing to do with it.
        However, I can assure you that Seattle supports the attorney general’s position.
        It’s pretty clear the attorney general wants to be governor. He’s been pretty active about chipping away at the Constitution and he’s definitely marching to the Democratic Party’s drum beats.

        • That still doesn’t answer why a federal judge in the 9th circuit (Seattle) would jurisdiction over a business in the 5th circuit(Texas), while the Young v Hawaii case, still in the 9th, has no baring in 1st (Massachusetts), 2nd (New York City), or 3rd (New Jersey) circuits. Why?

          • Because the federal judge in Seattle said so.

            That’s it.

            That’s all the authority needed.

            Maybe such activism isn’t new, but seems to have exploded since Trump.

        • The question posed is whether a federal court can exercise personal jurisdiction over DD. (Notably, there is no evidence at this point that DD challenged jurisdiction, which is enough.) The question, in more formal legal term, is whether DD has sufficient “minimum contacts” with the forum to make is subject to suit there. Minimum contacts are established if a business does business int the forum state. DD does business literally everywhere. It is on the internet, which is everywhere, and it sells and ships products all across the country. With these assumptions, avoiding jurisdiction in Washington would be a hard case to establish.

  5. What would be hilarious, once this is before another court, would be for a judge to whip out his phone and download the exact same files from another site while the .gov attorney is making their arguments!

  6. And it will cost time and treasure to get this latest nonsense overturned. Slowly grinding away resources and will.

    It won’t stop until the personal consequences of acts like this outweigh the benefits the perpetrator gets from committing them. (I’m talking about the judge who issued the injunction, if that’s not clear.)

    I wonder, when overturned, if the judge could be sued as an individual for all associated costs based on deprivation of rights under color of law. (And maybe criminally charged to boot.) That’s supposed to be a big no-no, isn’t it?

    • Judges has some version of immunity. Lawyers that mess up get referred to the bar association, which is just another punch of lawyers. Go figure.
      You convict judges for actual crimes, not rulings.
      Something like this judge
      http://www.fox2detroit.com/news/local-news/problem-solvers-no-show-judge-sues-to-go-back-to-work
      “In December, Kahlilia Davis was sworn in. But the new judge asked the court if she could take the start of her term off so she could take a trip to Germany.

      Chief Judge Nancy Blount denied the vacation request. Then, Davis informed the chief judge she’d had surgery and wouldn’t be able to attend court.

      And even though there’s a docket full of cases for her to hear every day, Judge Davis has never showed up to hear a single one.

      FOX 2 watched the judge on days when she had court cases and while she wasn’t out having the time of her life, she was out. She went to Sam’s Club, went to the credit union and the gym.

      One day we were surprised to follow her to the 36th District Courthouse. Was she actually going to take the Bench? Nope. She went in for a few minutes and came out. The date? February 15th. Payday.”
      http://www.fox2detroit.com/news/local-news/the-case-of-the-no-show-judge

  7. “A Futile, Symbolic, and Ultimately Unconstitutional BOUGHT AND PAID FOR Federal Court Order Against 3D Guns”

    There fic’d it.

    • More like trying to ban a book that has been on the shelf for 20 years at Amazon.com and bookstores and libraries across the country.

      FIFY

  9. Boy am I glad they thoroughly suppressed TM 31-210 and nobody can get their hands on it. /sarc

  10. The whole business seems idiotic to me. That plastic pistol cannot wreak much havoc, most hard core violent coconuts would want a LOT more firepower.
    The sad truth is that most Americans have become terrified smurffs. I blame it on No-Score Tee Ball and Soccer.

    • This is no more than political posturing. We know it, they know it, and the only reason they have gotten this far is by lying through their teeth. They conflate the(single shot) Liberator, a plastic (almost 100%) gun, with an AR, which is of course ridiculous since the only part that is printed is the lower receiver. (NBC News last night showed both), completely ignoring the fact that 80% lowers have been around for years. They ignore the cost of a 3-D printer. They ignore the lack of reliability. They ignore that similar plans in the hundreds have been on the internet for a number of years. They ignore what the Obama Administration lawsuit was really about. They are out and out fearmongering.

      The way I see it, this may simply be a prelude to a ban on the home manufacture of firearms

  11. From the Archives:

    General Rule as follows: “Never trust a person who wears a robe in public.”

    • We should require our judges to wear those ridiculous white wigs the British do. The lawyers should be required to wear them as well. Perhaps a clown nose required for any federal judge who has been overturned more than X percent of their rulings.

  12. When is enough going to be enough and we start storming courthouses and treating these “judges” like the criminal scum they are?

    • … and the corrupt prosecutors as well.

      I have had the same question rattling around in my head.

  13. Where is an active ink to download the CAD files (clean) for the current version of this useless POS/toy?

  15. Links are being blocked to the site formed by Calguns, and FPC (among others) that is now hosting the files. What’s up with that TTAG?

  16. Next week: permanent injunction upheld. After that happens it will go to the Supreme Court hopefully after Kavanaugh is confirmed. However SCOTUS will refuse to hear it. Again. Making a liberal activist able to create a law out of whole cloth based upon a biased opinion which equates to censorship because guns. After which multiple states will blanket ban 3-D printing guns and also the creation of homemade guns. California and New Jersey will pass bills saying that the creation of firearms for personal use is a illegal with no grandfathering. I’m going to call that within the next year that it will become a complete and blanket ban of all homemade firearms. Everyone in the entire country that ever bought an 80% lower receiver and everyone and anyone who is ever made a homemade gone in any capacity is now in instant felon. I’m calling it now because will happen. No law will actually be passed out it will just be created by activist judges.

    • “Your enemy is never a villain in his own eyes. Keep this in mind; it may offer a way to make him your friend. If not, you can kill him without hate — and quickly.”
      ― Robert A. Heinlein

    • Shawn, you may be right. However, you will still be able to produce the gun, and the federal government will still consider it legal, your state is just whacking its pud and won’t even know you did it. Because you are specifically allowed to build your own gun, you just can’t sell it. You can order the CNC unit and the 80% lower by mail, and download the software from multiple sources, so they say. I dunno, have plenty ARs. But the effects on stupid laws fascinates me.

  17. A crowd of panic-ridden attorneys general rush to the court and shout, “do something, even if it’s wrong.”
    The judge consoles them, “there, there. I’ll think of something.”

  19. Isn’t this just a temporary restraint until a full hearing can be held? As others have said, people do not lose first-amendment cases.

  20. Meanwhile, people have homes with pools, knives, lethal chemicals, vehicles, stairs, liquor, and all sorts of features and items that cause many times the deaths that guns supposedly cause per year.

    So yes, let’s make an issue out of a non-issue.

  21. These Federal judges have too much power to stall rulings , overturn them , or even thwart with impunity . These judges need to be accountable with public humiliation , censorship and disbarment , should it be seen that their rulings are tactics rather than actual legal discernment .

  22. It is the manufacturing without serialization that has the control freaks in government sooo riled up . Their ultimate goals are registration and taxation and then confiscation , once they have wrung out as much cash as they can wring .

  23. This has been litigated before with “The Anarchist Cookbook” with its bomb and poison making instructions. The courts have ruled that information is protected speech.
    It is already settled law.

  25. If this ruling ever takes hold it will under a Hillary style Presidency, will wipe out the Air soft gun manufacturing and all Replica firearms will end. Plastic or metal formed in Air soft bib’s as well; as BB’s and Pellets fired by spring or Co2 implement’s.Then all Gun Accessories made with plastics are next.

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