A federal judge in Seattle has blocked the Trump administration from allowing a Texas company's public release of blueprints for 3D-printed guns, extending an earlier restraining order.
Attorneys general from 19 states and Washington, D.C. argue guns made from the blueprints would be difficult to trace and are a risk to public safety.
“Americans have been allowed to manufacture their own firearms, unserialized firearms, for the entire history of our Republic,” says Emily Taylor, an attorney with Texas Law Shield. “It is now and has always been illegal to put those firearms into the stream of commerce.”
Taylor likens the case to The Anarchist Cookbook which originally contained instructions for making explosives and illicit drugs, and is still widely available today on the basis of free speech.
“You don't have to like the speech that is being distributed, but the government is not in the business of regulating our free speech rights,” she says. “There is no discernable difference between this case and these 3D blueprints being distributed and The Anarchist Cookbook.”