Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asking that the government’s 3-D printing settlement with Cody Wilson be canceled before taking effect July 27.
On July 10, 2018, Breitbart News reported that Wilson’s Defense Distributed and the Second Amendment Foundation reached a settlement with the State Department that will be finalized by Department of Justice this Thursday. The suit, Defense Distributed v United States, was the result of the State Department shutting down Wilson’s online 3-D file sharing.
Wilson and the Second Amendment Foundation waged their suit on a First Amendment basis, arguing that fettering the ability to share files was tantamount to fettering the ability to exercise speech freely.
Wilson won and the Second Amendment Foundation told Breitbart News: “The government has agreed to waive its prior restraint against the plaintiffs, allowing them to freely publish the 3-D files and other information at issue. The government has also agreed to pay a significant portion of the plaintiffs’ attorney’s fees, and to return $10,000 in State Department registration dues paid by Defense Distributed as a result of the prior restraint.”
Now Rep. Engel is begging the Trump administration to stop the settlement before it takes effect July 27. A copy of Engel’s letter, obtained by Breitbart News, shows that he is concerned the ability to print gun parts, assemble firearms, etc, will provide a new way to skirt background checks and other Democrat-sponsored gun controls.
He does not mention that nearly every high profile shooting in the last decade was carried out with guns acquired via background checks. Nearly every one. So background checks have offered zero hindrance to would-be criminals in first place.
Moreover, Engel suggests that 3-D printed guns will be “undetectable by most security systems.” He says this will play into the hands of “terrorists, lone wolf killers, or mentally unstable persons.”
Similar arguments were made about Glock handguns in the 1980s. Popular Mechanics reported that gun control activists opposed Glocks in the 80’s, claiming they were “made mostly out of plastic so airport security machines wont detect [them].” In reality, however, the Glock’s polymer frame has steel inserts, the slide is metal, and the internal Glock mechanism is comprised of metal parts.
It soon became evident that the gun controllers did not understand Glock handguns, as it now appears Rep. Engel does not understand 3-D gun printing.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.