Pallone to Introduce Bill to Ban the Production of 3-D Firearms

Washington, DC- Today, Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06) announced that he will be introducing the “3-D Firearms Prohibition Act”, which will outlaw the production of 3-D Firearms. The Brady Campaign has called 3-D printed firearms “untraceable” and there are currently countless online blueprints for 3-D guns.

This week an agreement announced between the State Department and Texas-based Defense Distributed will let the organization release blueprints for 3-D guns online starting August 1st. Defense Distributed's website features the Liberator pistol along with an AR-15 and a VZ-58, a Czechoslovakian assault rifle. These weapons of war have been used in mass shootings like the one that took place in Parkland, Florida.

“Given the gun violence epidemic plaguing our communities, the last thing our country needs is an unregulated and untraceable source of lethal firearms,” said Pallone. “We need sensible solutions to reduce gun violence, not AR-15s available at the stroke of a fingertip. I cannot allow the Trump administration to endanger more of our children by appeasing the gun lobby and allowing unfettered access to weapons of war.”

3-D gun blueprints are currently considered data that is governed by International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and cannot be published without approval from the State Department. The Trump Administration has proposed a new regulation to remove downloadable gun blueprints from this classification altogether, allowing anyone to post 3-D gun blueprints.