Even if they are, well, mediocre at best, 3D-printed guns are controversial and actively dangerous to those attempting to make them. But the State Department appears to be taking no chances, and is moving to effectively ban the files you need to use a 3D printer to make guns from the Internet.
How? By changing the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, or ITAR. On a practical level, ITAR controls firearms and firearms design knowledge being exported from the United States. The rule, while technical, would amend the definition of “technical data” to include 3D-printing files; essentially, under the law, sending somebody the file to print a firearm would be the same as sending them an actual gun for the purposes of the law. So if you put a file on the Internet, and somebody from Canada downloads it, congratulations! You are now an international arms smuggler and are going to jail.
The State Department does have a point here. 3D-printing guns is currently a hobby of a small subset of dorks who mostly want to see if they can do it. But 3D-printing is spreading rapidly and as the technology improves, concern over increased access to arms manufacture is pretty reasonable. The last thing the more unstable parts of the world needs is more idiots with assault rifles.
That said, it’s hard to see this as anything other than a token gesture. Sure, it’ll get the highly visible examples off the Internet, but the files themselves will simply go to the deep web. It’s hard to imagine the State Department investing a lot of time and money trying to search for needles in that particular haystack. But, hey, at least terrorists won’t be able to find gun designs on Instructables! That’s something, right?
(via PopSci)