Associated Press reported<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\nGun control advocates are hailing the printer ban as a way to get a handle on so-called \u201cghost guns,\u201d or untraceable firearms made with 3D printers and lacking serial numbers.<\/p>\n
Advocates for banning 3D-printed guns argue that those guns are increasingly being used in crimes.<\/p>\n
In Wyoming, a gun rights advocate and 3D printing business owner told Cowboy State Daily that the California and New York measures are pointless.\u00a0<\/p>\n
People have always made their own firearms and should have the right to do so, said Mark Jones of Buffalo, a national director for Gun Owners of America (GOA).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Banning 3D-printed guns, or the printers that make them, won\u2019t change that, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
From a technical standpoint, the bans won\u2019t work, said Kevin Thomas, owner of T&G 3D Printing in Basin.<\/p>\n
As he sees it, there\u2019s no way to make printers that won\u2019t produce certain items. Printers will produce whatever they\u2019re programed to.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe printer itself can\u2019t determine what is being printed,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Telling Printers What Not To Do<\/p>\n
The New York law and California bill direct experts to craft algorithms that could detect firearm blueprints.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hypothetically, the technology would analyze 3D printing designs against a digital library of firearm parts, and reject those that match the parts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some industry experts have told lawmakers in those states that won\u2019t work.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thomas agreed, saying that\u2019s because 3D printer operators would still have the final say through \u201cG-codes\u201d they enter in their machines telling them what geometric shapes to cut.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Trying to control G-codes would not only be impractical, but it would also amount to an infringement on freedom of speech and expression, Thomas said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Moreover, major firearms manufacturers such as Smith & Wesson also use gun-design software, he said, adding that efforts to regulate firearms out of the 3D printing world will backfire.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat will end up happening is there just won\u2019t be any 3D printers for sale in California, so people there will just go across state lines to get them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
People Have Always Made Guns<\/p>\n
Firearms parts or accessories can be 3D-printed for sale, except lower receivers, Thomas said. The lower receiver is the part of the firearm including, for instance, the trigger assembly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lower receivers can be created for personal use only.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thomas said he doesn\u2019t print firearms parts or accessories because of possible legal complications.<\/p>\n
For example, if he made a rifle stock for a customer, and that stock became part of a firearm that was later used in a murder, that might come back on him, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jones said that concern over \u201cghost guns\u201d is hyperbolic.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople have been making their own firearms since 1776,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Democrats have also tried using firearms serial numbers to create databases for a national firearms registry, Jones added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s actually illegal to keep a registry of what guns people have, and we think it should be,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the latest twist in efforts to ban 3D-printed \u201cghost guns,\u201d New York state and California have moved…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-367857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}