Latest in 3D Printing
The administration’s change in the export regime of small arms has gone into effect, except for the rules relating to the blueprints for 3-D weapons. A federal district judge in Seattle temporarily blocked that switch.
This week saw law and common sense unite in opposition to the widespread availability of dangerously untraceable, undetectable guns.
Cody Wilson’s legal battle to post his plastic gun schematic is awful, pitting speech values against human lives, raising the specter of more mass shootings, and casting a dark shadow on what should be the bright new technology of 3-D printing. In times like these, it's tempting to wish that a few magic words could make the schematic—and all its legal and moral baggage—simply disappear.
As three-dimensional printers have become widely available in electronics and appliance stores, they have begun to raise hard legal and regulatory issues related to firearms. The laws that govern firearms were not written with 3D printers in mind, and it remains to be seen how widely available self-made firearms will be treated by our firearm regulatory rules.