California’s new bill requires DOJ-approved 3D printers that report on themselves targeting general-purpose machines.
Assembly Member Bauer-Kahan introduced AB-2047, the “California Firearm Printing Prevention Act,” on February 17th. The bill would ban the sale or transfer of any 3D printer in California unless it appears on a state-maintained roster of approved makes and models… certified by the Department of Justice as equipped with “firearm blocking technology.” Manufacturers would need to submit attestations for every make and model. The DOJ would publish a list. If your printer isn’t on the list by March 1, 2029, it can’t be sold. In addition, knowingly disabling or circumventing the blocking software is a misdemeanor.
This is stupid.
You easily tell who is 3D printing guns because they have one hand and bits of plastic barrel stuck in their faces.
On the contrary, there was a very interesting video by PSR (pardon the YouTube link) about how the civil war in Myanmar was being fought almost exclusively with 3D printed firearms. Apparently they’re reliable enough to be an actual threat.
“3d printing guns” isn’t about the pressure holding parts, it’s about the traceable serial number holding parts. On most firearms the “lower assembly” or “receiver” (frame, trigger group, feeding assy) is legally considered the firearm and is what bears the serial. Most of those can be printed and use off the shelf hardware to work, albeit with a much lower lifespan.
Pressure containing wear parts that are meant to be exchanged (barrel and breech bolt) typically do not carry serials and are thus not normally traceable. If you eliminate the serialized, traceable part of the firearm, then any collection of parts could be used.
That said, eliminating an entire hobby and industry because gun serialization laws haven’t been updated in a hundred years is probably not the right way to do it.
Is printing a lower less illegal than removing the serial number? Must be, otherwise what’s the point other than cost?
Yes. In most of the US removing a serial is explicitly illegal, while manufacturing a firearm for personal use (the serialized part is legally the firearm, but most places don’t require you to serialize personally manufactured firearms) is completely legal.
I believe it’s a federal felony to remove the serial.
That’s what I thought, but I wasn’t positive and I didn’t want to provide incorrect information.
Serialized parts have their purchases recorded and restricted, other parts are (usually) unrestricted.
How would they connect a serialized part to a purchase if the serial number is completely gone? I guess 3d printing would also allow those who are unable to legally buy the parts to get them too.
They can’t definitively pin a particular purchase to a particular serial-defiled firearm, but the fact that the government knows that you purchased a firearm on such and such date is probably enough of a concern for a lot of people. It’s a lot easier to gather a stockpile of parts without drawing much attention.
If there’s a record of you purchasing X gun, and they find you have that same model with the serial filed off, 99% chance you filed the serial off your gun.
Right, which is why I was wondering if printing it w/o serial number is less illegal. Because if it’s not, either way having it found would guarantee arrest
Because to get the serialized part, you still have to be approved for the purchase through background checks, which will go live on the state police database, and then the police can check that database to see recently acquired firearms if something happens. Chances are the list of a specific type of firearm with the serial ground off is going to be pretty short.
And yes, the being able to obtain it with no background checks at all is the other big key.
Unless you get it secondhand. Then you just kinda… Skip all that. Legally.
Unless I am missing something obvious, the simplest solution is to require both uppers and lowers to be stamped. As far as I can tell, this would only be a burden to manufacturers unless there are some weird interactions with the idiotic “stamped part is gun” definition of a firearm.
That doesn’t make much sense as a law against printers, since it’s far easier and just as illegal to grind off the serial numbers on a gun.