PA Bill Number: HB829
Title: In preliminary provisions, further providing for definitions;
Description: An Act amending the act of April 12, 1951 (P.L.90, No.21), known as the Liquor Code, in preliminary provisions, further providing for definitions;
Last Action: Signed in House
Last Action Date: Jul 3, 2024
Media coverage of 3D-printed guns under fire for inaccuracies :: 08/03/2018
Political pundits and reporters on Tuesday pushed back on misinformation regarding the 3D-printed plastic gun furor prompted by a Justice Department settlement with nonprofit group Defense Distributed, enabling it to publish blueprints for firearms that will be accessible to anyone with an Internet connection.
"People have been making guns at home for personal use for ages, plastic (not undetectable, still uses metal) or not," Dana Loesch, a National Rifle Association spokeswoman, wrote on Twitter. "People are acting like this is a new thing because MUH TRUMP, apparently."
[Opinion: 3D-printed guns were always going to be legal]
Journalists covering the controversy joined Loesch in criticizing commentators for a lack of knowledge on the matter.
Polly Mosendz, a gun laws reporter for Bloomberg, was quick to issue a reminder that it is legal for an unrestricted person — someone not deemed to be ineligible from buying a firearm under state or federal legislation — to make a weapon at home.
David French, of the right-leaning National Review, and Stephen Gutowski, a writer with conservative news website Washington Free Beacon, also complained about members of the press and faulty reporting.
Their main gripe was with the premise that downloadable plans for 3D-printed guns, which Defense Distributed is promising to release in full on Aug. 1, is a new phenomenon. In fact, Defense Distributed has already published some designs on its website, while outlines for other models and their parts have been available on the Internet since 2013 when 3D printing started growing in popularity.
In addition, they emphasized that the Undetectable Firearms Act already makes it illegal to deal with a weapon that would not set off a metal detector or would not produce an accurate image when analyzed by standard imaging technology. Most 3D-printed guns require metal components or supplements, they argued.
The Justice Department in June settled a free speech lawsuit that was filed in 2015 by Defense Distributed and the Second Amendment Foundation against the State Department. Provisions in the settlement waived past restrictions placed on Defense Distributed concerning the sharing of the blueprints. The limitations had initially been imposed pursuant to International Traffic in Arms Regulations, which seeks to supervise exports of military materials.
The State Department's decision to curb only Defense Distributed's activities came under scrutiny because other entities, including the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, have posted weapon designs online without facing similar repercussions.
Attention to the 3D-printed guns situation has risen in recent days thanks to a multistate lawsuit against the Trump administration and statements from President Trump on the subject.
Eight states and the District of Columbia announced on Monday that they would ask a federal court in Seattle to grant a nationwide temporary restraining order that would block Texas-based Defense Distributed from disseminating its plans.
Trump also tweeted Tuesday that permitting 3D-printed firearms "doesn’t seem to make much sense!"
Avery Gardiner, co-president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, told Wired on Tuesday that external factors, including the perception of close ties between the White House and the NRA, have contributed to the heightened awareness surrounding 3D-printed weapons, despite it not being a novel problem.
"It was absolutely the Trump administration's behavior that set off this firestorm of controversy around the printing of guns," Gardiner said, adding that mass shootings at a Las Vegas country music festival and at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., had shifted the gun law debate in favor of advocates for more control.
