U.S. court says 'ghost gun' plans can be posted online

[PAMedic=F|A=]

U.S. court says 'ghost gun' plans can be posted online
Tue, April 27, 2021, 9:01 PM
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Plans for 3D-printed, self-assembled “ghost guns" can be posted online without U.S. State Department approval, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

A divided panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco reinstated a Trump administration order that permitted removal of the guns from the State Department's Munitions List.

Listed weapons need State Department approval for export.

In 2015, federal courts applied the requirement to weapons posted online and intended for production on 3D printers, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

However, three years later the State Department under then-President Donald Trump settled a lawsuit by a 3D gun company and ordered their removal.

California, 21 other states and the District of Columbia sued and a federal judge in Seattle issued an injunction last year, saying that posting the designs without restrictions could put unregistered weapons into the hands of terrorists.

In overturning the injunction, the appellate panel found 2-1 that a 1989 federal law prohibits courts from overruling the State Department’s decision to add or remove a weapon from the Munitions List, the Chronicle reported.

Judge Robert Whaley, who cast the dissenting vote, argued that the potential increase in accessibility of ghost guns presents “a serious threat to public safety" and noted that the weapons have been linked to several mass shootings.

The latest occurred last Thursday in San Diego, where police said a man armed with a home-assembled, unregistered gun killed one person and wounded four others in unprovoked attacks.

Ghost gun parts can be purchased online or 3D printed from blueprints and the weapons put together at home.

Federal figures showed that nearly a third of guns seized in California in 2019 were ghost guns.

Such weapons generally lack serial numbers, which are used to trace them. California has a law requiring anyone building a homemade gun to get a serial number or identification mark from the state Department of Justice but there are concerns that the law isn't being widely followed.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-court-s...010118844.html

[alpacaheat]

9th Circus now making GOOD decisions!

[Fortytwo]

9th Circus now making GOOD decisions!

Thanks to Trump, and Mitch.

[flygrimm]

Expect a request and grant for an En banc hearing, an injunction preventing the posting of such materials and the Ninth sitting on it for years before making a decision. Their normal modus operandi in 2A cases.

Stuart

[Fortytwo]

Any injunction so issued would only apply to states within the Ninth Circuit, would it not? But internet postings can be made from anywhere. So would the injunction have any practical impact? Or would this become a go-directly-to-the-SCotUS case?

[JenniferG]

Ghost guns? Print plans? Wat dat?

[win67]

California, 21 other states and the District of Columbia sued and a federal judge in Seattle issued an injunction last year, saying that posting the designs without restrictions could put unregistered weapons into the hands of terrorists.

The heck?!

What business is it of California's if terrorists do or don't do [thing]? That's an issue of State, reserved to the Feds in the COTUS, unless I'm mistaken.

Based on the word "terrorist", I'm assuming they meant foreign actors, as opposed to "criminals", which is understood to refer to domestic miscreants the state can use its police power on.

If I were the judge that suit was brought to, I would've thrown it out for lack of standing. But, I'm not a judge, so what the heck do I know.