Elias Atienza | Contributor
The Department of Justice settled a lawsuit with Defense Distributed and the Second Amendment Foundation in June, which will allow Americans access to firearm blueprints online, including designs that can be created with a 3D printer.
The DOJ offered the plaintiffs the settlement in April and it was finalized in June, according to Wired.[2] Americans will be allowed to “access, discuss, use, reproduce or otherwise benefit from the technical data,” such as designs for the AR-15, according to Reason[3].
The Department of State ordered[4] Cody Wilson, the founder of Defense Distributed, to not release the blueprints of the “Liberator,” a plastic single-shot pistol, onto the internet, warning that Wilson might be prosecuted for violating the International Trade in Arms Regulation (ITAR) back in 2013. The Liberator could be printed at home with a 3D printer and the blueprints were downloaded 10,000 times before the government intervened.
In response, Wilson and the Second Amendment Foundation sued the State Department in 2015, claiming the order violated Wilson’s First Amendment rights. (RELATED:
