The Trump administration broke a federal law when it reached a settlement allowing a gun-technology company to post online the digital blueprints for making weapons with a 3D printer, a judge ruled.
The State Department didnt give the public a proper explanation in 2018 when it reversed an Obama-era position to block publication by Defense Distributed of computer-aided design files for guns, U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik in Seattle ruled on Tuesday.
States that sued over the administrations settlement with Austin-based Defense Distributed said that allowing people to print untraceable guns at home would put law enforcement officers at risk. The company argued that posting the information was a matter of free speech.
Given the agencys prior position regarding the need to regulate 3D-printed firearms and the CAD files used to manufacture them, it must do more than simply announce a contrary position, Lasnik wrote in his decision.
Lacking such an explanation, the reversal was an arbitrary and capricious violation of the federal Administrative Procedure Act, according to the ruling.
The administration of President Barack Obama had blocked the companys effort to publish the files for years, arguing that it would violate an arms-export law. But the State Department in June 2018 gave Defense Distributed the green light. The companys website called it our most famous victory.
The government accord raised alarm bells among gun-control advocates and prompted the Washington suit backed by attorneys general from several other states.
In a court filing over the summer, the states said the evidence in the case showed that the State Department had failed to consider the national security implications of the deal in light of the unique properties of untraceable, undetectable, 3D-printable plastic firearms.
