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A judge has stopped the plan to post 3D-printed gun blueprints online

A judge has stopped the plan to post 3D-printed gun blueprints online

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A judge today granted a request for a restraining order temporarily blocking a controversial plan to post 3D-printed gun blueprints online.

The restraining order was one more turn in a years-long legal skirmish over Defense Distributed, a Texas organization run by a man named Cody Wilson that is looking to make homemade firearms available to the masses through 3D printing. Wilson said he had planned to post the blueprints on August 1, after reaching a settlement with the Trump administration last month that allowed the plan to go forward, but files were released — and downloaded — before that date.

“This site, after legally committing its files to the public domain through a license from the U.S. Department of State, has been shuttered by a federal judge in the Western District of Washington,” a note now reads on a site for the distribution of the files.

“This site... has been shuttered by a federal judge”

Nine attorneys general intervened earlier this week, arguing that the settlement is unconstitutional. A federal judge in Seattle today halted the scheduled release of the plans until the lawsuit is resolved, setting the stage for another protracted legal fight.

“As we argued in the suit we filed yesterday, it is — simply — crazy to give criminals the tools to build untraceable, undetectable 3D printed guns at the touch of a button,” New York Attorney General Barbara D. Underwood said in a statement on the ruling. “Yet that’s exactly what the Trump administration decided to allow.” 

President Trump wrote in a tweet today that he was following the controversy, although his exact position was difficult to discern. “I am looking into 3-D Plastic Guns being sold to the public,” he wrote. “Already spoke to NRA, doesn’t seem to make much sense!”

Update, 9:06 AM ET: Includes information about previously posted files.