Court Rules "Ghost Gun" Plans Can Be On Internet

(Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via AP, File)

So-called ghost guns scare the crap out of the left. The problem is that they can’t control them. They can’t regulate them, really. Oh, they can pass all the laws they want about it, but you can’t really stop it from happening. Especially in the era of the 3D printer, where you can basically print out an entire weapon.

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Instead, what anti-gunners have tried to do is make it so you can’t get access to the files. If you don’t have the files to tell your printer what to make, it’s a lot harder to make a gun.

Unfortunately, a court ruling just hurt those efforts.

Plans for 3D-printed, self-assembled “ghost guns” can be posted online without U.S. State Department approval, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

A divided panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco reinstated a Trump administration order that permitted removal of the guns from the State Department’s Munitions List.

Listed weapons need State Department approval for export.

In 2015, federal courts applied the requirement to weapons posted online and intended for production on 3D printers, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

However, three years later the State Department under then-President Donald Trump settled a lawsuit by a 3D gun company and ordered their removal.

California, 21 other states and the District of Columbia sued and a federal judge in Seattle issued an injunction last year, saying that posting the designs without restrictions could put unregistered weapons into the hands of terrorists.

And just like that, there’s no way to remove guns from the hands of the American people.

If I can build a gun with just a 3D printer, then so long as I can access that, I will always have the ability to make a gun. You cannot disarm a people if you cannot prevent them from reacquiring weapons.

So, really, it’s probably a good time for anti-gunners to stop trying.

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Not only that, but now there’s hope for people in places like Hong Kong who are dealing with real, actual oppression. If they can get their hands on these files, they can arm themselves and resist the tyrannical forces working against them. They can arm themselves and potentially win their freedom.

There’s a reason the first 3D-printed firearm was called “The Liberator,” after all.

OK, there were a number of reasons, but I’m on a roll here.

What the ruling does is empower each and every one of us to have the means to build ourselves a firearm at will. It may not be a great firearm, but it will work well enough. Over time, though, new designs will come about and we’ll get better and better designs, making tyranny even more unlikely to prevail.

I’m not going to lie to you, I’m stoked about this technology and this ruling.

Of course, the fight may not be over by a longshot. There are still appeals that could be made and that might well change the game back again. So what we really need is a Congress that can and will act to preserve this new technological frontier. God knows the current one won’t.

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