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Biden administration cracks down on 3D-printed 'ghost guns'
The Biden administration's Justice Department has issued a rule limiting the spread of 3D-printed 'ghost guns.'
More than 20 attorneys general are trying to ban 3D-printed guns
The fight over 3D-printed guns has gone back and forth for years. One side wins, the other appeals and so on. Now, 21 US attorneys general are banding together to renew the fight and sue the Trump administration. Their lawsuit, submitted Thursday, challenges new federal regulations that could, once again, allow blueprints for making 3D-printed guns to be posted on the internet.
The legal battle over 3D-printed guns is far from over
Last year, Defense Distributed won a legal battle, which allowed it to continue uploading and sharing blueprints for 3D-printed guns. The decision was immediately criticized by states and gun-reform advocates. Now, a US District Judge has overturned the ruling. Once again, it is illegal to publish blueprints for 3D-printed guns online.
3D gun distributor Cody Wilson deported to the US
Authorities aren't wasting any time bringing Cody Wilson, the owner of 3D-printed gun maker Defense Distributed, back to the US. Taiwan officials deported Wilson to the US on September 22nd following his arrest a day earlier over his annulled legal status in the area. It wasn't clear where in the US Wilson was headed, although a Texas city is a possibility given the US arrest warrant issued for him in state over allegations he paid for sex with an underage girl.
Texas company sells plans for 3D-printed guns despite ban
A judge may have extended a ban preventing Defense Distributed from publishing plans for 3D-printed guns, but that isn't stopping the company from finding loopholes to continue offering the weapons. Company owner Cody Wilson has started selling the plans to US customers through his website on his belief that the ban only rules out publishing the plans online, not selling them directly. Those who purchase the plans can receive them by email, secure file transfers or even USB thumb drives shipped by mail.
Facebook is blocking links to 3D-printed gun files
Facebook is blocking links to sites that host 3D-printed gun files. The company has determined that such designs are not allowed under the regulated goods section of its community standards -- Facebook doesn't permit person-to-person gun sales.
More states join lawsuit to keep 3D-printed gun plans off the internet
On August 1st, Defense Distributed was set to upload designs of 3D-printed guns for the public to buy and download. But the day before, a Seattle judge temporarily blocked their release after seven states and Washington, DC sued the company and State Department. Today, eleven more states have joined the legal battle to stop the firearm plans from being sold online.
States sue to block sale of 3D-printed weapon designs online
The fight to keep 3D-printed gun designs off of the web continues as a number of states said on Monday that they would be jointly suing the Trump administration, Reuters reports. In a press release, Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson said today that the states have requested an injunction to block online publication of the designs and have filed a lawsuit. Joining Washington in the endeavor are New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Oregon, Maryland and Washington, DC.
America's love affair with firearms bleeds into gaming culture
Gaming culture is rife with graphic representations of gun violence and has been since arcade goers first blew aliens out of Space Invader's skies. You'll be hard-pressed to find more than a handful of AAA titles designed for adults (sit down Rayman) that don't rely on firearms, or use gore in substitution, either as a primary tool for the gameplay or as a thematic element.
Reddit bans communities trading firearms and drugs
Reddit's bid to clean up its communities now includes what those communities trade. The social site has updated its policies to ban the trade of firearms, explosives, drugs (including alcohol and tobacco), services with "physical sexual contact," stolen goods, personal info and counterfeits. Accordingly, Reddit has shut down numerous subreddits that either directly traded in these goods or were clearly meant to enable those exchanges, including r/gunsforsale, r/stealing (yes, it existed) and r/darknetmarkets.
YouTube bans videos that sell guns and accessories
Gun videos may be a thing of the past on YouTube, with the Google-owned company updating its policies on firearms-related content. Videos can no longer sell guns or accessories via direct sales or even have links to sites that sell them. Videos also cannot have instruction on manufacturing firearms or associated items like magazines or silencers.
Google Shopping's 'gun' ban blocked people from buying wine
Google Shopping banned weapon listings way back in 2012, but users have just been noticing it -- and have learned that the filtering has been a little too aggressive. Visitors from the US and elsewhere have discovered that the shopping search page hasn't been showing results for anything with "gun" in the name, including some perfectly innocuous items. Did you want to find Burgundy wine or Guns N' Roses' Appetite for Destruction? Too bad. You could still find things through a regular Google search, but that wouldn't be as helpful.
America is driving gun sales on the dark web
Sixty percent of all the weapons sold on the dark web are smuggled out of the US, according to research from the RAND Corporation. It, along with the University of Manchester, began investigating the illegal trade in firearms, explosives and ammunition available on Silk Road-esque marketplaces. The pair believe that sellers are making a killing by buying guns in the US and shipping them to Europe, where prices are higher.
Facebook and the folly of self-regulation
There's a whole bunch of content that you aren't allowed to post on Facebook. Threats against public figures and other users, claims of imminent self-harm, harassment and bullying (in theory, at least) and the purchase, sale or trade of regulated goods like drugs and weapons. What's more, Facebook made a subtle change to its Community Standards back in January, effectively banning the peer-to-peer sale of firearms, ammo and explosives. Firearm shops and online retailers are still allowed to promote offline sales on Facebook -- assuming all applicable laws and regulations are met -- but private citizens can no longer offer their own weapons on the site. While this is a commendable policy shift on FB's part, the site's enforcement of the new rules has been spotty at best.
Facebook has banned person-to-person gun sales
Apparently you could buy and sell guns on Facebook before today. Note the past tense there. The New York Times says that this change is in response to President Obama's recent push for Zuckerberg and Co. to cull the person-to-person transactions from the social network and Instagram -- similar to how it treats sales of marijuana, prescription drugs and other illicit substances. Licensed gun dealers are still fine; the idea here is curbing the background-check-free sales that can occur on a person-to-person basis.
ICYMI: Gaming mood lighting, a shooting drone and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-22597{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-22597, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-22597{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-22597").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Virtual Reality by Oculus Rift is about to get way more tactile thanks to a newly acquired hand tracking tech company. Hue lights will now sync with an Xbox One game and oh man, the ambience on your next blood bath will be intense. And a YouTuber uploaded a video of a drone that fires a semiautomatic handgun, which makes crabby old men the world over pleased.
Smart camera warns you when guns enter your home
Anxious that you might face an armed home invasion, or that your kids might find the key to the gun cabinet? NanoWatt Design thinks it has a way to give you that crucial early warning. Its crowdfunded GunDetect camera uses computer vision to detect firearms and send a text alert to your phone. If it works as promised, you'll know there's an intruder at the door, or that you need to rush into the den before there's a terrible accident. If you're intrigued, it'll take a minimum $349 pledge to reserve a Cloud GunDetect (which requires a service subscription to process images) and $549 for a Premium model which does all the image recognition work itself. Provided that NanoWatt reaches its funding goal, both cams should ship in February.
Uber says no guns in cars, period
Drivers and passengers can no longer carry guns on Uber rides, even if they have a legal permit. Uber previously allowed partners to drive with guns, as long as they "abide(d) by local, state, and federal laws." The transportation company told the New Republic that "we have adopted a no-firearms policy to ensure that both drivers and riders feel safe and comfortable on the platform." It added that it made the changes on June 10th, well before the deadly Charleston attacks, and only after "reviewing recent feedback from both riders and driver-partners."
Arms control and free speech go to court over 3D-printed guns
Cody Wilson fundamentally altered the way we produce and distribute firearms in 2013 when his company, Defense Distributed (DD), first published the plans for a 3D-printed pistol, dubbed The Liberator, on its website. The State Department didn't take too kindly to this revelation and sent DD a letter demanding the instructions be removed as they violated a number of US Arms Export control laws. Now, two years later, Defense Distributed and the State Department are going to court over the matter in a lawsuit that potentially holds far-reaching implications for both the First and Second Amendments.
The NYPD is trying a more precise gunshot detection system
Zeroing in on the precise source of gunfire is next to impossible in densely packed cities like New York City. Shots reverberate off of building facades, obscuring the shooter's location and costing law enforcement precious response time. But with a newly installed gunshot detection system, the NYPD will know exactly where those shots are coming from.
