Federal judge temporarily halts distribution of 3D gun blueprints News
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Federal judge temporarily halts distribution of 3D gun blueprints

A federal judge in Seattle issued a temporary restraining order [order, PDF] Tuesday blocking a Texas man from releasing downloadable blueprints for plastic 3D-printed firearms.

Judge Robert Lasnik of the US District Court for the Western District of Washington [official website] issued the ruling a day after the Washington Attorney General, along with several other states, filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF] challenging the Trump administration’s recent decision to allow the public posting of such blueprints on August 1, 2018, by Defense Distributed [advocacy website], a non-profit gun advocacy group.

Lasnik granted a temporary restraining order stating that the posting of these blueprints would provide broad unregulated access to dangerous weapons and create “a possibility of irreparable harm because of the way these guns can be made.”

This decision follows a similar injunction [JURIST report] granted by the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania [official website] after the Pennsylvania Attorney General filed a similar claim [complaint, PDF] in federal court. The matter is sure to work its way through the federal appeals process in the coming months.

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