NRA: 3D Printed Guns Are Already Illegal

If you've been following the latest sensational news story in the national media regarding 3D printed guns, you might be interested in this story from The Daily Caller.

According to the DC, the National Rifle Association is pointing out that 3D guns are already illegal.

“Many anti-gun politicians and members of the media have wrongly claimed that 3D printing technology will allow for the production and widespread proliferation of undetectable plastic firearms. Regardless of what a person may be able to publish on the Internet, undetectable plastic guns have been illegal for 30 years,” Chris Cox, the NRA-ILA Executive Director, said, according to Stephen Gutowski.

Furthermore, this whole debate really seems to have more to do with the 1st Amendment rather than the 2nd Amendment.  2nd Amendment expert John Lott has a piece posted at FoxNews.com. Here's an excerpt:

Gun control advocates don’t just have a problem with the Second Amendment – they also have real problems with the First Amendment. In an era when people can use 3D metal printers to make guns, does the First Amendment protect a book detailing a gun-manufacturing process – but not a computer file that does the same thing?

A 2001 decision, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, said: “Communication does not lose constitutional protection as ‘speech’ simply because it is expressed in the language of computer code.”