US lawmakers protest deal that would start ‘age of the downloadable gun’
Government agreement to permit the free distribution of plans for using 3D printers to make plastic handguns is called ‘stunning’ and ‘puzzling’
Dozens of US legislators are demanding that the Trump administration explain a recent agreement to allow the free distribution of plans for using 3D printers to make plastic handguns that will be easy to hide and almost impossible to control.
After a lengthy legal battle, the government reached agreement last month with Cody Wilson, a militant gun rights advocate from Texas.
He successfully argued that the US Constitution’s Second Amendment, which guarantees the right to private gun ownership, should extend to a person’s right to make guns at home – uncontrolled by authorities, since they will bear no serial number.
Dozens of Democrats in both the US House of Representatives and the Senate have decried the settlement and are demanding an explanation from the President Donald Trump’s administration, which has been extremely supportive of gun-owners’ rights.
The agreement between the State Department, which controls the exportation of American arms, and Wilson’s defence Distributed (DD) group was reached on June 29.