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Gun rights advocate vows to fight court ban on downloadable 3D-gun designs
WASHINGTON, Aug 1, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – A gun rights advocate is vowing to
take his fight to publish online blueprints for 3D-printed firearms to the US
Supreme Court, if necessary, after a court temporarily blocked the
controversial venture.
A judge in Seattle granted the injunction Tuesday after eight US states
and the District of Columbia argued that criminals and terrorists would use
the blueprints to make untraceable, undetectable plastic weapons.
Cody Wilson, the founder of a company called Defend Distributed that has
published the blueprints online, told CBS News he believes “access to
firearms is a fundamental human dignity. It’s a fundamental human right.”
“What I’m doing is legally protected,” he said in an interview hours
before the injunction was handed down by US District Judge Robert Lasnik.
“I will go to the appellate level. I will go to the Supreme Court. I will
waste all my time,” Wilson said.
The states acted to block publication of the blueprints after the Trump
administration settled a five-year legal fight by permitting the company to
publish its website Defcad.
The website was shut down by Wednesday, but blueprints that had been
posted online before the court order had already been downloaded thousands of
times.
In a message on the website, Defense Distributed made a public appeal for
financial support “to uncensor the site.”
As uproar mounted Tuesday, the White House expressed skepticism over the
legality of Wilson’s efforts, even though the administration had green-
lighted the project.
“I am looking into 3-D Plastic Guns being sold to the public,” the
president said. “Already spoke to NRA, doesn’t seem to make much sense!”
White House spokesman Hogan Gidley expanded on the president’s comments
Tuesday night, telling reporters: “It is currently illegal to own or make a
wholly plastic gun of any kind — including those made on a 3D printer. The
administration supports this nearly two-decade old law.”
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1948 hrs