In the debate over whether posting data for the 3-D printing of untraceable and hard-to-detect plastic firearms is about First and Second Amendment rights, perhaps Congress should put some skin in the game for those who would risk lives with such arguments.
“If I allow you to download an AR-15, the full plans for an AR-15, I don’t believe that I provide you with anything other than the general knowledge of what an AR-15 is,” said Cody Wilson, founder of Defense Unlimited, a Texas nonprofit that is fighting for the right to publish such plans online. “I am no different from a publisher of information.”
Beyond the First Amendment argument above, Wilson also makes one for gun rights.
“I believe that I am championing the Second Amendment in the 21st century,” he said. “Unquestionably, it’s good for the future; unquestionably. I think access to the firearm is a fundamental human dignity, a fundamental human right.”
He’s been fighting for five years.
The State Department under President Barack Obama argued starting in 2013 that publishing plans for a firearm online would violate a federal law against the illegal export of guns. The Trump administration reversed course. In a June 29 settlement with Wilson, the State Department agreed to pay $40,000 in legal fees and opened the door to Defense Unlimited posting its firearms blueprints online.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro reached an agreement with Wilson to make his plans unavailable to people in our state, and ours was among eight states that sued the Trump administration over its decision. In response, a federal judge in Seattle issued a temporary restraining order that barred plans for do-it-yourself firearms from being made available online nationwide.
A group of senators, including Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey Jr., a Scranton Democrat, filed legislation to
