U.S. Government -VS- Defense Distributed (along with the 1st & 2nd Amendments)

[Mercer]

Not sure how many of you are following this but Defense Distributed is trying to use technology to do the same thing for guns, that bitcoin did for money. They're testing the limits of current laws that regulate firearms.

 

The law that defines what a gun is, and then opens that object up to regulation basically says a lower receiver, once it's 81% manufactured constitutes a gun. All the other parts of a gun (short of individual state regulations) are  pretty much easy to purchase without government interference. Defense Distributed  sells 80% completed lower receivers for 5.56 & .308 AR-15's,  as well as popular hand guns like the 1911 and composite (Glock). They also sold a CNC machine to finish the manufacturing process of the lower receivers, and are coming out with a new 2nd generation CNC machine for around $2000, that comes pre loaded with software to effortlessly finish the manufacturing process. By ordering these 80% lowers, and the Gen2 ghost gunner, you can make as many serial number free "Ghost Guns" as you want. 

 

That said, the main reason they're in the news now is because the Federal Court system has had a temporary injunction barring them from publishing plans for a 3D printer to make a single shot composite plastic gun.  Software is considered protected under free speech, while there may be laws regarding copyright now, or how you use software, sharing it is protected. You could essentially print the code out in the form of a book. Since banning a book would be a clear violation of the 1st amendment, the courts have always ruled up until this point that code is also protected under free speech.

 

The injunction blocking Defense Distributed from publishing their 3D printed blueprints was due to expire. Bu this Monday, a judge decided having the plans availiable to download for free would cause more irreparable harm to the country than abiding by the 1st, & 2nd amendments to the constitution, so he dropped a permanent injunction, basically writing his own legislation and circumventing due legal process.

 

Here's where it gets wild, DD purposely framed this entire court battle around publishing the plans for free, expecting this entire time that this would happen. So now they're selling the plans instead, basically circumventing the legal framework of the injunction. The main guy behind DD, Cody, dropped this info on a podcast I just heard. Pretty wild stuff.

 

Here's the Podcast:

EP_6_Cody_01.mp3

 

 

If interested in supporting their legal efforts I suggest the following:

 

• Memebership

• Donating (Bitcoin Cash donations will be matched)

 

[Kults]

Damn, thanks for posting I'll check it out

[glorydays]

i believe in everyone's right to own a gun...but within the confines of the law.

By having unregistered guns, i believe that's illegal

 

What's not illegal are the plans for 3D printers. That shouldnt be banned for obvious reasons.

But using the plans? That's another thing entirely.

[Mercer]

7 hours ago, glorydays said:

i believe in everyone's right to own a gun...but within the confines of the law.

By having unregistered guns, i believe that's illegal

The requirement for a serial number doesn't apply to weapons you manufacture yourself. You only need a serial number, and a federal manufacturer's/dealers license for weapons that are sold, not weapons you make yourself, or even weapons you give away for free.

 

There's no laws in place to restrict what they're doing, and technically you need to break a law first to have what you're doing considered illegal. I believe that's the point.

[glorydays]

4 hours ago, Mercer said:

The requirement for a serial number doesn't apply to weapons you manufacture yourself. You only need a serial number, and a federal manufacturer's/dealers license for weapons that are sold, not weapons you make yourself, or even weapons you give away for free.

 

There's no laws in place to restrict what they're doing, and technically you need to break a law first to have what you're doing considered illegal. I believe that's the point.

I didn't know that. That's really interesting.

but the law is a deterrant, so who knows what new legislature they'll come out with next. They're probably going to make a new license you'll need to acquire to manufacture your own guns, or a fee for every gun you make yourself or something like that.

[Mercer]

Yea, I'm sure they'll do whatever it takes to restrict/deny every one of the constitutional rights until the day there are none left. For now, at least somebody is fighting back, and trying to delay that inevitability.

[glorydays]

2 hours ago, Mercer said:

Yea, I'm sure they'll do whatever it takes to restrict/deny every one of the constitutional rights until the day there are none left. For now, at least somebody is fighting back, and trying to delay that inevitability.

I agree with that...I have to read up on more legislation on gun restriction

[GnomeToys]

I think one of my friends bought one of these last year, he was asking me about setting up CAM shit for it.  Not my area, but I've messed with it.

 

I really don't see the point in legislating this at all.  A lower isn't a very complicated part to reverse engineer, and any type of major organized crime anyone is worried about would have bought commonly available CNC machines a long time ago when they were out of the reach of an average person but cost nothing from the perspective of a crime syndicate.

 

It's also a fundamental lack of knowledge about how gun crimes are solved if the shooter didn't just shoot themselves afterwards...  if I understand things correctly, basic level shit is all done based on unique rifling grooves;  upper receivers are already hot-swappable, so who cares.  Next method is scratches / denting pattern on shell casing;  again, we've got upper receiver and bolt carrier group.  Then there's DNA & fingerprint pickup from spent casings & gun.  Having a gun with a registered lower purchased by the actual shooter left on scene might be some kind of dream scenario for police who get to go home early that day, but usually in that case the shooter is there too.  If the last registered transfer was a year ago the gun could have gone through five other owners since then.  A serial number doesn't tell them anything. 

 

I thought I'd read about some initiative to start doing very slight additions of other metals to the lead based on sales area so they could track region of purchase for ammo more easily.  California is trying to force micro-stamping on firing pins that imprints the serial number onto the casing but I don't think that's in effect yet either.

 

This is more or less the same thing with guns that include the fun switch feature.  Yeah, it's not very hard to buy one.  Pass a quick background and pay the tax stamp.  You have to have a good amount of money already though...  I just checked and a pre-ban Colt M16A2 is $30,000.  Post samples are only about $5k.  No difference except year of manufacture.

 

And now for something completely different, here's a guy wearing Nitrile gloves explaining exactly what you need to do with a DD AR lower to convert it to select fire while telling you at the same time that you shouldn't do it, but this is how.  ? ?