By MATTHEW DALY and CATHERINE LUCEY
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump came under heavy pressure Tuesday to block blueprints for 3D printers to make deadly plastic guns, stepping into the dispute after his administration agreed to allow plans for guns that could be easy to conceal and difficult to trace.
Trump tweeted he was "looking into" the issue and consulting with the National Rifle Association.
The election-year headache is a problem of the administration's own making. After a years-long court battle, the State Department in late June settled a case against a Texas company that wants to provide directions that would allow people to computer-print their own guns.
The settlement, which took gun-control advocates by surprise, allowed Austin-based Defense Distributors to resume posting blueprints for the hard-plastic guns at the end of July.
Democrats sounded the alarm, warning about "ghost guns" that can avoid detection and pose a deadly hazard.
"All you need is a little money and you can download a blueprint from the internet to make a gun at home," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. "No background check. No criminal history check."
The company's website said downloads would begin Wednesday, but blueprints for at least one gun - a plastic pistol called the Liberator - have been posted on the site since Friday. A lawyer for the company said he didn't know how many blueprints had been downloaded since then.
Outrage over the administration decision is putting gun-control back into the election-year political debate, but with a high-tech twist.
The president seemed to express surprise. He said on Twitter he was looking into the idea of a company providing plans to the public for printing guns,
