Obama Admin. Orders End to 3D Printable Gun Downloads

Charging a violation of an the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), Obama’s State Department sent a threatening letter to the students who set-up the radical pro-Second Amendment website Defense Distributed.

Specifically, the letter alleged that the students were possibly in violation of ITAR because thousands of downloads of their 3D printable gun had come from outside the United States.

The State Department apparently considered a free download by a foreign user from a US-based Internet provider to be an “export” and that the plans being downloaded qualified as “controlled defense articles and related technical data.” ITAR provides that such “exports” first require the Department of State’s approval.

In addition to the 3D printable gun, the State Department also had Defense Distributed remove the 3D plans for a muzzle brake, sound moderator (for an air rifle), a gun sight, a .22 sub-caliber insert for a 12 gauge shotgun shell, and other plans.

Unfortunately for the Obama Administration, the plans have now sprung up everywhere else on the Internet, since the State Department’s objections arrived only after 100,000 downloads had already occurred.