A day before blueprints for 3D printed guns were set to be available online because of a decision by Donald Trump’s administration, the president questioned whether they should be publicly available.
In a confusing tweet on Tuesday morning, Trump appeared to oppose 3D printed guns.
“I am looking into 3-D Plastic Guns being sold to the public,” Trump said. “Already spoke to NRA, doesn’t seem to make much sense!”
The company Defense Distributed said it would again make blueprints for printable guns available on its website starting Wednesday, following a court settlement with the US government.
But the president’s comment suggests he and the country’s largest gun lobby do not support his administration’s decision to make these plans publicly available.
In a late June court settlement, the US allowed the designer of a software blueprint for a plastic gun, Cody Wilson, to share instruction manuals for the guns online. Defense Distributed, Wilson’s company, said it would put the instructions back online on 1 August, but because they had been posted online before, officials said more than 1,000 people had downloaded the instructions after the settlement.
Gun control advocates warned the court’s decision would make it easier for people to access untraceable firearms. They have also filed requests with the government for more information in how it came to decide printable firearms could be sold in the US.
Politicians, meanwhile, are working to ban printable guns by city and state.
On Monday, 21 state attorneys general sent a letter to the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, and attorney general, Jeff Sessions, asking them to withdraw from the court settlement. “In addition to helping arm terrorists and transnational criminals, the settlement and proposed rules would provide another path to gun ownership for people who are prohibited by federal and state law from possessing firearms,” they wrote.
The National Rifle Association has not been very vocal on the issue of printable guns, though last week it appeared to issue support through spokesperson Dana Loesch.
NRATV tweeted a video of Loesch mocking Democrats for trying to restrict the availability of printable guns.
“To try to restrict this is as unenforceable as trying to institute bans on magazine capacity,” Loesch said. “You just need simple shop skills to be able to do it in your garage.”
The state department ordered the blueprint designer, Cody Wilson, to stop distributing the plans online in 2013, citing international arms control law. Wilson, who owns the distribution company Defense Distributed, filed suit against the department in 2015.
