There aren't many gun control proposals that California will vote down. Mostly those that will negatively impact Hollywood, but beyond that, they love them.
And 3D-Printed guns threaten to upend that. It allows people to make guns without government permission, but California is going to try anyway.
The problem is that, in their effort to do so, they have to move beyond guns and start attacking a completely different device. This time, it's the 3D printers themselves.
Legislation in California aimed at preventing the production of 3D-printed firearms has civil liberties groups raising an alarm.
The bill, A.B. 2047, would require businesses that sell 3D printers in the state to alter their software to detect and block the printing of untraceable firearms, commonly referred to as “ghost guns.”
The legislation would also make it a crime to “knowingly disable, deactivate, uninstall, or otherwise circumvent any firearm blocking technology” on a 3D printer.
While proponents of the bill say it is necessary to prevent the spread of unregulated firearms, critics — including the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) — argue that it threatens consumer choice, free expression and privacy.
The bill “will not only mandate censorware — software which exists to bluntly block your speech as a user — on all 3D printers; it will also criminalize the use of open-source alternatives,” the EFF said.
Passage of the bill, the EFF believes, would lead to the same issues seen with some traditional printers. Companies such as HP, for example, have prohibited altering their printers’ code and locked users into their ecosystem of products.
And as many of you might be aware, being locked into a particular ecosystem of products isn't always ideal. It means you're either stuck with what that company offers or you're forced to start over with a new ecosystem, which may or may not turn out to answer your issues in the first place. We see this with things like game consoles and cell phones already, but this is different.
The 3D printer is nothing less than a complete revolution. I absolutely adore the technology in and of itself, but what people have done with it is also amazing. This simple technology allows grass-roots manufacturing to take place. Whereas would-be entrepreneurs of the past who wanted to manufacture a product had to start off with a factory, now they can just buy a printer or two, churn out a product, and see if the market bites. If not, they can pivot to a new product without retooling anything. It's a massive boon for capitalism.
And then there are those who have them so they can just make whatever their household needs that can be made of plastic. They don't want to be a manufacturer; they just want some self-sufficiency.
The people who use these are endless, and yes, some people make guns. Some of them do it so they can sell them.
The kicker is that California's law won't stop that. It'll just encourage people to cross state lines to get the printers. No matter what, the Golden State can't force the rest of the US to play their censorship game--and yes, restricting data is censorship.
The ramifications of this go beyond the intended purpose, which it'll fail to impact, and it will simply create an entirely new set of problems for people who live there that have nothing to do with so-called gun violence.
Honestly, the only reason to live in California is the weather, and that only really applies in part of the state. For anyone else, either a would-be manufacturer or just someone who values their rights, California ain't what they told the Beverly Hillbillies. It's not where you want to be. Not by any stretch of the imagination.
