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Federal judge blocks publication of 3-D printed gun blueprints

Washington Post: “A federal judge ruled in favor of more than a dozen attorneys general on Monday to block the release of blueprints for 3-D printed firearms online. The Seattle court order effectively criminalized publication of the gun design files, banning Texas-based company Defense Distributed from posting them on the Internet. The decision presents a new hurdle in the company’s fight to make weapon-design files publicly available, a case that has sparked a national conversation about the implications of untraceable plastic weapons and constitutional rights. Judge Robert S. Lasnik of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington cited risks to public safety in granting the injunction. He wrote that the 19 attorneys general and the District of Columbia who filed the lawsuit have “a legitimate fear that adding undetectable and untraceable guns to the arsenal of weaponry already available will likely increase the threat of gun violence they and their people experience.” The proliferation of digital weapon files, Lasnik said, “will hamper law enforcement efforts to prevent and/or investigate crime.” The decision stems from a suit filed July 30 against the State Department, which had agreed to allow Defense Distributed to publish an arsenal of firearms blueprints online in a planned settlement. The states argued that the release of 3-D printable designs threatened national security and abridged their ability to pass and police gun laws…”

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