Will these 3D printed guns be used in the commission of crime? Undoubtedly. But will they also be used for self-defense? Equally surely. If you ban 3D printed guns, how does this change? With law-abiding citizens obeying the law, only criminals will be the ones who get these relatively inexpensive guns.
Is this a civil liberties issue? To me this is a way to lower the cost of people obtaining guns -- a big benefit given that it is poor minorities who live in high crime urban areas who benefit the most from owning guns. Yet, it looks as if the Obama administration is using threats, without a legal basis, to stifle people obtaining these guns.
From Fox News:
. . . Plans for the working handgun were posted online Monday by Cody Wilson, founder of Defense Distributed, potentially allowing anyone with access to a 3D printer to make a firearm from plastic. The plans, which had been in the works for months, caused alarm among gun control advocates but were seen by some Second Amendment advocates as a breakthrough. More than 100,000 copies of the plans were downloaded before the federal government took the files.
“[Defense Distributed's] files are being removed from public access at the request of the U.S. Department of Defense Trade Controls," read a banner atop the website. "Until further notice, the United States government claims control of the information.”
Wilson tells FoxNews.com that he decided to comply to a request by the Pentagon to take down the gun specs from his website while he weighs his legal options. . . .
Wilson says he has complied to most laws on the books and feels that the D.O.D.'s request may be more politically motivated.
"If this is an attempt to control the info from getting out there, it's clearly a weak one," he said, adding that the CAD design for the weapon has already spread across the Internet at downloading sites like the Pirate Bay. . . .Source
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