3D-Printed Firearms, Do-It-Yourself Guns, & the Second Amendment
2017; Duke University School of Law; Volume: 80; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1945-2322
AutoresJames B. Jacobs, Alex Haberman,
Tópico(s)Intellectual Property Law
ResumoI INTRODUCTION In December 2012, Cody Wilson, a law student and self-described anarchist, (1) posted to Internet free that instructs a three-dimensional (3D) printer (2) to make plastic gun parts and a functional gun. At a demonstration widely covered by media, Wilson fired a single bullet from a 3D-printed gun called the Liberator. (3) He also posted to Kim Dotcom's website (4) (computer numerical code) that directs printing. (5) Wilson and his supporters hailed this technological breakthrough as a giant step toward making firearms more publicly accessible and unsusceptible to regulation. (6) According to Wilson, [I]n this world, in world we want to create, anyone who wants access to a firearm can have access. Because we believe that is a right that no one should be allowed to infringe. Especially political actors.... Gun rights are human rights. (7) Wilson's demonstration was excoriated by gun control advocates because a 3D-printed plastic gun evades metal detection and is not traceable to its maker. (8) The Directorate of Trade Controls (DDTC), U.S. State Department's unit in charge of administering and enforcing Arms Export Control Act, advised Wilson to remove his 3D firearm printing from Internet (9) because it might violate Act as interpreted by State Department's International Traffic in Arms Regulations. (10) The Regulations require State Department permission to export articles. (11) Export means: (1) sending or taking a defense out of United States in any manner, except by mere travel outside of United States by a person whose personal knowledge includes data, and (2) disclosing (including oral or visual disclosure) or transferring data to a foreign person, whether in United States or abroad. (12) Defense article means articles and items on U.S. Munitions List. (13) The list includes technical data, defined as information in form of blueprints, drawings, photographs, plans, instructions or documentation and software directly related to defense articles. (14) Therefore, posting to Internet data related to manufacturing defense articles constitutes arms exporting under Act. Wilson complied with DDTC's request. However, in few days before he removed from Internet, it was downloaded more than 100,000 times (15) and reposted to other websites. (16) Moreover, neither DDTC nor any other government agency prohibited Wilson from selling or giving his away on a flash drive or via email as long as it is distributed in United States. He formed a company, Distributed, to sell 3D printers programmed to print firearms and firearms parts to Americans within United States. Thus, anyone in United States could easily obtain Wilson's 3D firearms printing and hardware from Wilson himself, and a foreign person or entity could easily obtain these products through a willing U.S. intermediary, or from a foreign person who downloaded either from Wilson's website before he removed it from Internet or from another website. (17) Wilson sought to overturn removal order by obtaining a jurisdiction determination (18) from DDTC. (19) Consequently, Wilson, on behalf of Distributed, submitted ten jurisdiction pertaining to his for 3D printing firearms. (20) On September 25, 2014, (21) while its commodity jurisdiction requests were pending, Distributed sought prepublication approval from Office of Prepublication and Security Review (22) to publish on Internet computer numerical control (23) files for producing Gunner, a computer-instructed machine that mills a metal block--or, blank--into a lower receiver for an AR-15. (24) Uncertain as to whether Ghost Gunner was subject to International Traffic in Arms Regulations, Office of Prepublication and Security Review decided not to provide an opinion. …
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