DOJ and SAF Reach Settlement in Defense Distributed Lawsuit - Victory for 3D Printing!

[Bartholomew Roberts]

http://joshblackman.com/blog/2018/0...ch-settlement-in-defense-distributed-lawsuit/

Under terms of the settlement, the government has agreed to waive its prior restraint against the plaintiffs, allowing them to freely publish the 3-D files and other information at issue. The government has also agreed to pay a significant portion of the plaintiffs’ attorney’s fees, and to return $10,000 in State Department registration dues paid by Defense Distributed as a result of the prior restraint.

Significantly, the government expressly acknowledges that non-automatic firearms up to .50-caliber – including modern semi-auto sporting rifles such as the popular AR-15 and similar firearms – are not inherently military.

“Not only is this a First Amendment victory for free speech, it also is a devastating blow to the gun prohibition lobby,” noted SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “For years, anti-gunners have contended that modern semi-automatic sport-utility rifles are so-called ‘weapons of war,’ and with this settlement, the government has acknowledged they are nothing of the sort.

Besides a victory for the common sense proposition that you can’t ban tools just because you can make guns with them, this also adds another legal acknowledgment that AR15s and similar firearms are regular, common-use firearms.

 

[Aguila Blanca]

Three cheers and a bunch of attaboys for the SAF.

Now ... was the SAF actually central in this case, or are they claiming credit for someone else's victory?

 

[Al Norris]

The SAF was instrumental to the case.

The case was, Defense Distributed v. U.S. Department of State.

Today, from The Daily Wire:

In 2013, hot-shot crypto-anarchist Cody Wilson warned the world that downloadable guns were imminent and gun control as we know it, a mere fantasy. Some five years later, fresh off a huge effective win against the State Department — which allows for Wilson to post his 3D-printable gun files online, "communist style," as he calls it — Wilson says gun control is officially dead. And he killed her.

Also from Wired Magazine (note that Wired Magazine is anti-gun):

Five years ago, 25-year-old radical libertarian Cody Wilson stood on a remote central Texas gun range and pulled the trigger on the world’s first fully 3-D-printed gun. When, to his relief, his plastic invention fired a .380-caliber bullet into a berm of dirt without jamming or exploding in his hands, he drove back to Austin and uploaded the blueprints for the pistol to his website, Defcad.com.

From the Volokh Conspiracy, US government drops prohibition on files for 3D printed arms by David Kopel. And from Reason mag, The Government Will Allow Cody Wilson's Defense Distributed to Distribute Gun-Making Software by Brian Doherty.

In a Press Release by the SAF:

Significantly, the government expressly acknowledges that non-automatic firearms up to .50-caliber—including modern semi-auto sporting rifles such as the popular AR-15 and similar firearms—are not inherently military.

The case was about certain ITAR regulations that forbade 3D printing files to go onto the Internet and was argued as a Free Speech (1st Am) intrusion. The case has been settled, so the Gov't may still officially argue their actions did not violate any rights, but it can now also be argued that such actions do not advance any national security claim.

From 3D printers to CNC coding... Making DIY guns from coded software will now be legal.

That admission by the DOJ, above, may help the death of anti-gun legislation.

Full court proceedings are here: http://joshblackman.com/blog/about-josh/defense-distributed-v-u-s-department-of-state/

 

[HiBC]

I'm not doing my giddy-dance just yet,but there MIGHT be something in this about removing the firearms now deemed "non-military" from ITAR regulation and turning it over to the Commerce Dept.

I'm not sure I like the Commerce Dept idea...Why isn't the BATF enough?I wonder what the CommerceDept might do?

Anyway,hopefully the ITAR regs will not be such a burden on gunsmiths.( To be clear,I'm not announcing this is true.I need more info. All this is breaking news.)

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-rel...in-defense-distributed-lawsuit-300678872.html

 

[Spats McGee]

Another article on this: http://www.wnd.com/2018/07/justice-ar-15s-are-not-military/