For gun-control advocates, this is a terrifying scenario. People who cannot pass a background check will be able to print a gun without a serial number, making the weapon impossible to trace, says Adam Skaggs of the Giffords Law Centre to Prevent Gun Violence. (Federal law requires licensed gun shops to run background checks, though this does not apply to private sales at fairs or on the internet.) His law centre is trying to get the courts to delay the settlement, at least.
Why did the government give up after three years of litigation and even agree to pay Mr Wilson’s legal fees? Mr Gottlieb thinks it settled because it was worried about losing the case, and because it would have had to disclose details of arms imports and exports if the case had gone to trial. Mr Skaggs argues that the government settled because “this administration will give the gun industry anything it asks for”. It is trying to deregulate gun exports. And it is nominating amenable judges whenever it can.
Plastic guns made with 3D printers are not yet very good. But downloadable files will soon be available that include rifles similar to the AR-15, a weapon used in recent mass shootings. Gun-control advocates say that even the simplest 3D-printed “Liberator” gun, which can fire only one shot, could wreak havoc if used against an aeroplane pilot. Moreover, the technology is improving. Soon 3D printers may produce sophisticated plastic guns. They can already print metal guns, although metal 3D printers cost the equivalent of an arsenal of traditional guns, so are unlikely to be widely used.
Democratic politicians such as Senator Chuck Schumer of New York vow to write a bill to suppress 3D-printed guns. But no new law is likely to pass before the mid-term elections. By then, hundreds of thousands of the new blueprints will have been downloaded.