A big win for Defense Distributed!

[gregintenn]

http://joshblackman.com/blog/2018/07/10/doj-second-amendment-foundation-reach-settlement-in-defense-distributed-lawsuit/

First I've heard about this case. I'm usually the last to know.

Quote

DOJ, Second Amendment Foundation Reach Settlement In Defense Distributed Lawsuit

Jul 10, 2018 |

I am pleased to announce that a settlement has been reached in Defense Distributed et al v. Department of State. (I have served as counsel for the Cody Wilson, Defense Distributed, and the Second Amendment Foundation since 2015). The Second Amendment Foundation has issued the following press release:

DOJ, SAF REACH SETTLEMENT IN DEFENSE DISTRIBUTED LAWSUIT

For Immediate Release                                      Contact:  Alan Gottlieb (425) 454-7012

BELLEVUE, WA – The Department of Justice and Second Amendment Foundation have reached a settlement in SAF’s lawsuit on behalf of Cody Wilson and Defense Distributed over free speech issues related to 3-D files and other information that may be used to manufacture lawful firearms.

SAF and Defense Distributed had filed suit against the State Department under the Obama administration, challenging a May 2013 attempt to control public speech as an export under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), a Cold War-era law intended to control exports of military articles.

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.

“Under this settlement,” he continued, “the government will draft and pursue regulatory amendments that eliminate ITAR control over the technical information at the center of this case. They will transfer export jurisdiction to the Commerce Department, which does not impose prior restraint on public speech. That will allow Defense Distributed and SAF to publish information about 3-D technology.”

The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nation’s oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms.  Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 600,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control.

I have posted all of the major pleadings in this case here.

 

Edited July 10, 2018 by gregintenn

[mikegideon]

Great!

[Omega]

Great, I had heard that 3d files were made unavailable due to this.  Not into 3d lowers myself, well not until they make a fiber element that can withstand a bit more use, and made affordable. 

[Chucktshoes]

Excellent news!

[DaveTN]

I had to laugh there are plenty of 3D CAD models available for download and have been for years. Some of these I downloaded looked like they were projects from a kid in tech center making his first CAD model (size and alignment was hilarious). At least now those that want to run one on their machining center will have the correct data.

[Chucktshoes]

Once you look past the fear mongering of the author,  you can get a better idea of what’s being accomplished here and how big of a game changer it has the possibility of being not just in the US, but worldwide  

 

https://www.wired.com/story/a-landmark-legal-shift-opens-pandoras-box-for-diy-guns/

[DaveTN]

2 hours ago, Chucktshoes said:

 you can get a better idea of what’s being accomplished here and how big of a game changer it has the possibility of being not just in the US, but worldwide  

How is this a game changer? 

[TGO David]

1 hour ago, DaveTN said:

How is this a game changer? 

The Fed's position on this under the Obama Administration was that 3D printing AR-15 lower receivers was a violation of ITAR restrictions.  The government, in this recent ruling, said this is not true and that modern sporting rifles up to .50cal including the AR-15 platform absolutely are not military weapons of war.

Read that carefully. 

The anti-firearms lobby just got their asses kicked.  The precedent has now been set that the AR-15 is not an assault weapon.

 

 

[Chucktshoes]

1 hour ago, DaveTN said:

How is this a game changer? 

Besides the political end that David mentions, underneath this is something bigger that the article misses on. They sort of allude to this letting the cat out of the bag as a 'threat' but what they might be missing is this isn't a game changer for us, it's a game changer for the world.

We already have ready and steady access to firearms of high quality at a reasonable price.   

Subjugated people have just took a step forward in being able to protect themselves. In ten years, maybe twenty, the printing materials will only get better. Like cell phones, this stuff will spread far and wide. In fifteen years you might see 3d printers doing yeoman's work by generator power in the African bush. 

If everyone has at least the basic ability of self protection, the odds of  your neighbor hacking up your family with a machete because they are from the wrong tribe goes way down.

Corrupt and violent regimes may soon all have to worry that every citizen is the next Gavrilo Princip.

AFTER A TOUR of the machine shop, Wilson leads me away from the industrial roar of its milling machines, out the building's black-mirrored-glass doors and through a grassy patch to its back entrance. Inside is a far quieter scene: A large, high-ceilinged, dimly fluorescent-lit warehouse space filled with half a dozen rows of gray metal shelves, mostly covered in a seemingly random collection of books, from The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire to Hunger Games. He proudly points out that it includes the entire catalog of Penguin Classics and the entire Criterion Collection, close to 900 Blu-rays. This, he tells me, will be the library.

And why is Defense Distributed building a library? Wilson, who cites Baudrillard, Foucault, or Nietzsche at least once in practically any conversation, certainly doesn't mind the patina of erudition it lends to what is essentially a modern-day gun-running operation. But as usual, he has an ulterior motive: If he can get this room certified as an actual, official public library, he'll unlock another giant collection of existing firearm data. The US military maintains records of thousands of the specs for thousands of firearms in technical manuals, stored on reels and reels of microfiche cassettes. But only federally approved libraries can access them. By building a library, complete with an actual microfiche viewer in one corner, Wilson is angling to access the US military's entire public archive of gun data, which he eventually hopes to digitize and include on Defcad.com, too.

"Ninety percent of the technical data is already out there. This is a huge part of our overall digital intake strategy," Wilson says. "Hipsters will come here and check out movies, independent of its actual purpose, which is a stargate for absorbing ancient army technical materials."

Browsing that movie collection, I nearly trip over something large and hard. I look down and find a granite tombstone with the words AMERICAN GUN CONTROL engraved on it. Wilson explains he has a plan to embed it in the dirt under a tree outside when he gets around to it. "It's maybe a little on the nose, but I think you get where I’m going with it," he says.

 

[Garufa]

Without seeing the court’s doucuments stating certain wepaons are not “military weapons of war” I’ll take the interpretations with a grain of salt.

This just ruling being a “game changer”, I doubt.  All one needs is iron or steel, and more importantly, ammunition to defend themselves or institute change.  People have been building guns in homes, caves, etc., etc. since gunpowder was invented....and in my lifetime fighting world powers with such weapons.

[btq96r]

We may well come to see this as a tactical withdrawal when hindsight is able to guide us.  If Congress finds a way to put what the DoJ argued was their interpretation of 3D printing of weapons into the USC or CFR, the .gov has a much stronger case in court because they're fairly skeptical of overturning legislation that lives in the wide void of government authority.

I hope I'm wrong about that, and truly like the concession about what isn't inherently military.  Though I'd like to read the settlement language on that part if it's ever public info.

[Erik88]

 

[mikegideon]

1 hour ago, Erik88 said:

 

Reckon the NRA told him that you can't make a barrel out of plastic? That would lead one to say that the panic over printed guns doesn't make much sense. Send that tweet to CNN. They will turn it into something.

[mikegideon]

1 hour ago, Erik88 said:

 

These retards...

 

[Erik88]

However you want to spin it Mike. You're almost as good as the Donald.

 

[mikegideon]

51 minutes ago, Erik88 said:

However you want to spin it Mike. You're almost as good as the Donald.

 

I'm not spinning anything. Plastic guns are stupid.

[Chucktshoes]

Just now, mikegideon said:

I'm not spinning anything. Plastic guns are stupid.

Not all 3d printing is plastic. 

[mikegideon]

Never mind. Donald ignoring another national emergency.

[Erik88]

1 minute ago, mikegideon said:

I'm not spinning anything. Plastic guns are stupid.

So are pink pistols, Derringers and the Mossberg Chainsaw. That doesn't mean we shouldn't be allowed to own them. Shall Trump "look into" those as well?

 

[Omega]

10 minutes ago, Erik88 said:

So are pink pistols, Derringers and the Mossberg Chainsaw. That doesn't mean we shouldn't be allowed to own them. Shall Trump "look into" those as well?

 

Hell yea, someone needs to look into this, what if some unsuspecting logger gets confused, oh the treemanity of it all.

[mikegideon]

Jesus Christ on a cracker. The Democrats are throwing a bitch hissy about a total NON-THREAT. So Donald calls the NRA. They say that printed guns are pretty much bull####. So, Donald comes back with something that most people can understand. Yeah, the media will chase it.

[Erik88]

34 minutes ago, mikegideon said:

Jesus Christ on a cracker. The Democrats are throwing a bitch hissy about a total NON-THREAT. So Donald calls the NRA. They say that printed guns are pretty much bull####. So, Donald comes back with something that most people can understand. Yeah, the media will chase it.

Mike, you know that if a democratic president had tweeted out the same thing you'd be criticizing them as well. We can argue that Trump just likes to get out his daily word diarrhea but he shouldn't always get a pass. 

[peejman]

1 hour ago, Chucktshoes said:

Not all 3d printing is plastic. 

Metal 3D printers capable of any sort of reasonable accuracy are fairly pricey. 

What's the difference between a 3D printed "firearm" using carbon filled filament and an 80% lower that gets finished with a dremel? 

[KahrMan]

Of course this is just a model but you can do some pretty cool things with a 3D printer.  I could build a functioning gun on our 3D printer but it is just not practical with current models.  If someone wants an untraceable gun it is much easier to buy on off the street or get a polymer 80 frame or something like that.  With technology advancements it might be a different story in 5-10 years.  For now 3D printed guns is just another "monster under the bed" story the media uses to get ratings.

 

[mikegideon]

25 minutes ago, Erik88 said:

Mike, you know that if a democratic president had tweeted out the same thing you'd be criticizing them as well. We can argue that Trump just likes to get out his daily word diarrhea but he shouldn't always get a pass. 

Quit with the accusations. More political theater. If Obama had done the same, I would be taking up for him.

Edited July 31, 2018 by mikegideon