The National Rifle Association had to point out Tuesday that any untraceable gun is outlawed in reference to the recent legal settlement that will allow for the blueprints on how to print and set up a gun from a 3D printer to be available to the public. Breaking: The NRA’s Chris Cox is out with a statement on 3D printed guns. pic.twitter.com/C2NkyqyNDf — Stephen Gutowski (@StephenGutowski) July 31, 2018 “Many anti-gun politicians and members of the media have wrongly claimed that 3D printing technology will allow for the production and widespread proliferation of undetectable plastic firearms. Regardless of what a person may be able to publish on the Internet, undetectable plastic guns have been illegal for 30 years,” Chris Cox, the NRA-ILA Executive Director, said, according to Stephen Gutowski. He continued, “Federal law passed in 1988, crafted with the NRA’s support, makes it unlawful to manufacture, import, sell, ship, deliver, possess, transfer, or receive an undetectable firearm.” The Trump administration is reversing a rule that banned people from posting instructions on how to make a fully-functioning gun at home with a 3D printer. DOJ will allow people to start posting these blueprints Aug 1st. This is a dangerous decision and we are demanding answers. pic.twitter.com/9GSoka37Ju — Senator Bill Nelson (@SenBillNelson) July 25, 2018 The settled lawsuit was brought on by Cody Wilson, the founder of the nonprofit digital publishing firm Defense Distributed, against the U.S. Department of State for infringing on his First Amendment rights. It will allow for Wilson’s blueprints for how to print and set up a gun that’s printed from a 3D printer to be reposted on the Internet starting on Wednesday. (RELATED: Democrats Sound The Alarm Over ‘Ghost Guns’ After Courts Declare Them Legal) The federal Undetectable Firearms Act, which was passed in 1988, made it illegal to manufacture or possess a weapon that would not be detected in a properly functioning metal detector or x-ray machine. “I am sounding an alarm that come Aug. 1, America is going to get a lot less safe when it comes to the gut-wrenching epidemic of gun violence,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said.<doc-sep>It took a federal judge and a temporary injunction on Tuesday night but, at least until next Thursday, it's not yet legal for anyone with access to a 3D printer, the correct materials and enough patience for a YouTube tutorial to print any kind of guns from the comfort of their own home. The last minute court ruling comes on the heels of a settlement between Trump's State Department — which had initially called the gun blueprints a violation of U.S. export law — and the Texas-based nonprofit Defense Distributed, which legally permits the latter to re-release the plans. In truth, probably only Congress, which declined to do so on Tuesday, can stop 3D-printed plastic guns from becoming a reality in America. But the only sound coming from Republican leadership on the issue of regulating 3D-printed guns is their efforts to block legislation to prevent the plans' release; the president tweeted only that he's "looking into it" and consulting the NRA. (Notably, in 2013, the NRA opposed any expansion of the Undetectable Firearms Act that would've made it illegal for individuals to create these weapons, so one can imagine how they advised him.) Sadly, at a time when members of Congress are being duped into enthusiastically endorsing fake programs that promote arming children and the president praises the NRA at their own convention, neither is a surprise. Meanwhile, the catalogue of guns was to include AR-15s and VZ-58s, a Czechoslovakian assault rifle. However, just as concerning as what these blueprints would allow people to produce, is what they aren’t required to produce: Guns with serial numbers. Serial numbers are critical in helping our law enforcement agents catch criminals. In 2017 alone, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) used serial numbers to trace guns over 400,000 times. Tracing serial numbers also helps ATF agents identify the methods by which firearms enter the illegal market, and informs their strategies to crack down on those criminal networks. There is absolutely no requirement for 3D-printed guns to be printed with a serial number and, in addition, there is no requirement for background checks in place for those who download or use the blueprints. It’s no surprise that, according to a spokesperson for the gun control group Giffords (named for founder and former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords), criminals have started using untraceable guns, known as “ghost guns,” as a way to circumvent assault weapon regulations. The State Department’s decision to settle with Defense Distributed was reckless, opening up the potential for anybody without a background check — including terrorists, convicted felons, and domestic abusers— to print untraceable death instruments from home. So now we need our elected leaders to step in, pump the brakes and implement common-sense solutions surrounding 3D-printed guns. Anything less wouldn’t just be irresponsible, it would be a gross moral failure. It will take Congress to act; it's clear that a Republican-led Congress will not, regardless of what their constituents think. As a first-time candidate for federal office, I’ve been on the road speaking with constituents face to face. These conversations have taught me three overwhelmingly clear lessons on the issue of gun safety. First, no community in America is immune from the gun violence epidemic; California’s 48th congressional district, where I am a House candidate, is no exception. Just last year, a man was sentenced for walking into a Seal Beach hair salon in 2011 with a firearm, taking the lives of eight innocent people, and injuring one more. Additionally, no episode of gun violence happens in a vacuum, as the suffering ripples in a way that is felt many times over. Take last year’s Las Vegas shooting as an example. I have been shocked by the number of folks I’ve spoken with in my district who knew someone — a friend, a family member, a teacher, a colleague — who was either injured or killed that night in October 2017, and that shooting happened 280 miles from the epicenter of California’s 48th. Finally, at a time when most people don’t agree on anything, most people agree that we need stricter gun violence prevention laws. An Ipsos/NPR poll released earlier this year showed that three-quarters of Americans think there is an opportunity to make our prevention laws safer. Fully 72 percent of Americans support banning assault weapons, and 94 percent support strengthening current background check laws. Thus, the unregulated manufacture of 3D-printed guns are a clear step in the wrong direction, and defy the people’s will for safer gun violence prevention laws. I recently spent a weekend on the streets of Huntington Beach, marching side by side with the brave survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. I was honored to join these inspiring young visionaries, who understand something our elected leaders don’t: The time has come to stop using people’s lives as a political fundraising tool, and to work together to find common sense solutions that keep deadly weapons out of the hands of dangerous individuals. Congress needs to regulate blueprints for and the production of 3D-printed guns or, at a minimum, hit the pause button until we have common sense laws in place. Simply stated, the laws covering the manufacture of traditional guns need to apply to the creation of 3D guns as well. That means we also need mandatory background checks for all gun buyers, including online, at gun shows, and for all 3D-printed guns. We need to prevent all convicted domestic abusers from buying guns, or printing them, and finally close the so-called “boyfriend loophole” in the federal law prohibiting gun possession by domestic abusers which usually does not apply when the victim is not a spouse. These are just some of the common-sense reforms needed to address the gun violence epidemic in America. Sadly, common sense, like firearm regulation, is in short supply in Washington, D.C. Harley Rouda is a successful businessman, philanthropist, attorney and tech entrepreneur who is running for Congress in California's 48th congressional district.<doc-sep>A court late Tuesday temporarily blocked downloads of 3D-printed gun blueprints after gun-control organizations, 21 U.S. state attorneys general, and Democrats in Congress scrambled this week to block a Texas company from sharing them on the internet. The restraining order, which came just hours before the plans were to be available for download, was in response to a lawsuit filed Monday by eight state attorneys general. Earlier on Tuesday morning, President Donald Trump suggested in a tweet that he and the National Rifle Association were considering joining the eight states and others in opposition. I am looking into 3-D Plastic Guns being sold to the public. Already spoke to NRA, doesn’t seem to make much sense! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 31, 2018 Gun-control advocates quickly seized on the president’s statement, pointing out that the Trump administration could quickly take action to block the blueprints from being released online. Advertisement “To protect the public from this senseless situation, the president should direct the State Department to block any further publishing of the designs for downloadable, untraceable guns,” Nick Suplina, managing director for law and policy at Everytown for Gun Safety, said in a statement. The State Department first ordered the plans taken down on the grounds their publication violated export law. But the president’s statement confused people on both sides of the debate. Neither Trump nor the NRA have commented further on their position, even though it seems at odds with the administration’s previous stance on 3D-printed guns. In early July, the Trump administration sided with the blueprints’ publisher, 25-year-old radical libertarian Cody Wilson and his company, Defense Distributed. The government agreed to a legal settlement that will allow Wilson to share blueprints for a pistol called the Liberator and AR-style guns on the internet August 1st. Wilson and other fringe gun-rights advocates celebrated the victory, characterizing it as the death of gun control. But the gun lobby wasn’t celebrating. Second Amendment advocates largely stayed silent, and when they did speak out, they argued that the debate was overblown. People won’t actually be able to make guns because the printers are prohibitively expensive, they argued, and the government will regulate any guns people might produce. “The gun lobby is ambivalent about this whole issue,” Mike Weisser, a lifelong NRA member who runs a prominent website called Mike The Gun Guy, told ThinkProgress. “On the one hand, it pushes them slightly out of the center of the industry in terms of who makes guns,” he said. “On the other hand, because they’re opposed to regulation, they don’t really want to really come out forcefully and say, ‘Oh yeah, we should regulate and come out and control plastic guns.’ For that reason, the industry is quiet about it. They haven’t said much at all.” David Chipman, a senior policy advisor with Gabby Giffords’ gun reform organization and a former special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), agreed that the gun lobby is struggling with this debate. Advertisement “The NRA is probably handcuffed by their own rhetoric,” he said. “They have to be consistent, so maybe that’s why they find themselves in a tough position.” Indeed, the NRA and gun manufacturers have largely been quiet on 3D guns. When they have spoken out, their comments have contradicted gun enthusiasts celebrating the end of gun control. On the NRA’s TV channel, spokesperson Dana Loesch ridiculed Democrats who were raising concerns about 3D-printed guns and falsely claimed that criminals and others barred from purchasing firearms cannot print 3D weapons. “You have laws already on the books,” she said. “If you are a prohibited possessor, you can’t do any of these things.” In fact, there is no law that can currently prevent anyone, including a “prohibited possessor,” from making a 3D gun. "If you're a prohibited possessor you can't do any of these things. I realize that the Chuck Schumers of the world, the Dianne Feinsteins and the Nancy Pelosis, and the Chris Murphys want to completely pretend that none of those laws are on the books, nor do they exist." @DLoesch pic.twitter.com/M33lCBiiHc — NRATV (@NRATV) July 23, 2018 Cam Edwards, an NRA News host, also mocked the outrage, writing on Twitter: “Gun control will now also include support for speech control, Internet control, and 3D printer control.” NRA TV’s Grant Stinchfield felt similarly. Advertisement The National Sports Shooting Foundation, the trade association for the firearms industry, has been particularly quiet. Weisser said that the only comment from its director has been to say that the guns don’t work, but otherwise it’s been years since the group made public comments about them. “If the technology at some point in the distant future reached the point where fully functioning and reliable firearms could be brought to market, the sales of such firearms produced with this technology would be governed by these federal laws,” NSSF wrote in 2013. “Depending on jurisdiction, state statutes and local ordinances may also apply.” Gun-control advocates, meanwhile, have dominated the conversation. They point out that 3D-printed guns are substantially different than traditional firearms — and more dangerous — because they can be obtained without a background check, can’t be identified by metal detectors, and do not have serial numbers that can be traced by ATF. Weisser said that at least one of those arguments are factually incorrect — even plastic guns need to have metal barriers, so there would be no way to get them through TSA scanners without detection. Still, gun-reform organizations were still scrambling this week to do everything they could to regulate the new technology before it’s too late. Chipman said the current debate over 3D-printed guns reminds him of the debates over other technology like bump stocks while he was working at ATF. “It was presented to us as new technology that seemed pretty flimsy, didn’t work very well, broke, and seemed pretty harmless and gimmicky,” he said. “You know what? It was pretty painful to have to witness Las Vegas and come to terms with the fact that we were wrong.” He pointed out that Trump, expressed concerns via Twitter about bump stocks after that shooting, but those accessories are still readily available. He said he worries that 3D guns will follow the same fate. “Maybe it’s not a clear and present danger tomorrow, but what is it going to be like in five years? We already know the laws and regulatory structure moves at glacial speed — do we have to wait until something horrific happens?”<doc-sep>
US President Donald Trump attends a joint press conference with South Korea's President Moon Jae-In at the presidential Blue House in Seoul on November 7, 2017. US President Donald Trump arrived in Seoul on November 7 vowing to "figure it all out" with his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-In, despite the two allies' differences on how to deal with the nuclear-armed North. / AFP PHOTO / Jim WATSON (Photo credit should read JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images) President Donald Trump hosts a business session with state governors in the State Dining Room at the White House February 26, 2018 in Washington, DC. TOPSHOT - US President Donald Trump waits for a dinner with Latin American and US leaders at the Palace Hotel during the 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly September 18, 2017 in New York City. / AFP PHOTO / Brendan Smialowski (Photo credit should read BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images) US President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with bipartisan members of Congress on school and community safety in the Cabinet Room of the White House on February 28, 2018 in Washington, DC. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images) WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 21: (AFP OUT) U.S. President Donald Trump (R) hosts a listening session with Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting survivors Julie Cordover (2nd R) and Jonathan Blank and his mother Melissa Blank and others in the State Dining Room at the White House February 21, 2018 in Washington, DC. Trump is hosted the session in the wake of last week's mass shooting at the high school in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 students and teachers dead. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Trump: Take guns first, then go to court 3D-printed guns will soon be just a click away (2018) (CNN) — The Trump administration supports an existing law they say makes it illegal to own or make homemade plastic guns, a White House official said Tuesday, coming hours after President Donald Trump tweeted that the availability of the firearms “doesn’t seem to make much sense!” “The President is committed to the safety and security of all Americans; he considers this his highest responsibility,” deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said to reporters aboard Air Force One. “In the United States, it’s currently illegal to own or make a wholly plastic gun of any kind, including those made on a 3D printer.” The administration supports the three-decade-old law, Gidley said, “and will continue to look at all options available to us to do what is necessary to protect Americans while also supporting the First and Second amendments.” The comments came one day before a government settlement would have allowed plans to be posted online following a settlement with gun-rights activists. On Tuesday evening, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking the federal government from allowing distribution of downloadable 3D-printed guns, according to a tweet from the Washington State Attorney General’s Office. “Downloads are disabled until I see the order,” Defense Distribution founder Cody Wilson told CNN. Trump had expressed skepticism earlier Tuesday, saying he’s spoken with the National Rifle Association about the technology. “I am looking into 3-D Plastic Guns being sold to the public. Already spoke to NRA, doesn’t seem to make much sense!” the President tweeted Tuesday, without offering further details about what he’ll do about the weapons. Chris W. Cox, executive director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, released a statement Tuesday underscoring the larger point made by Trump earlier. “Regardless of what a person may be able to publish on the Internet, undetectable plastic guns have been illegal for 30 years,” Cox said. “Federal law passed in 1988, crafted with the NRA’s support, makes it unlawful to manufacture, import, sell, ship, deliver, possess, transfer, or receive an undetectable firearm.” But last month, NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch made a different argument in an NRATV segment saying that Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York, was “freaking out” over the prospect of criminals printing assault-style weapons when there were laws that forbade “prohibited possessors” from doing so. “I’m actually talking about what Democrats call, quote unquote, ‘ghost guns’ and the what the rest of us call freedom and innovation: 3-D printed guns,” she said. Loesch went on to say that she believed any attempt to outlaw the technology or regulate 3D printers under the National Firearms Act would be “absolutely unenforceable.” "If you're a prohibited possessor you can't do any of these things.