A.G. Underwood — Part Of Coalition Of 22 AGs — Demands That U.S. State Department Stop Online Spread Of 3-D Printed Gun Plans
New York, NY - August 10, 2018 - New York Attorney General Barbara D. Underwood — part of a bipartisan coalition of 22 state attorneys general — today sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions demanding that the Department of State take immediate action to remove from several websites downloadable plans for 3-D printed guns that were illegally posted online.
“It’s common sense: we shouldn’t be handing criminals the tools to build untraceable, undetectable 3-D printed guns. But that’s what the Trump administration chose to allow – so we took them to court, and we won,” said Attorney General Underwood. “The federal government has a fundamental responsibility to enforce the law and protect public safety. The State Department must do its job and act now to stop the spread of these materials.”
The letter criticizes the Department of State’s failure to mitigate the harms of its settlement with Defense Distributed, an online company that was authorized by the federal government to post plans for 3-D printed guns online. Last week, Attorney General Underwood and a coalition of Attorneys General won a temporary restraining order from a federal judge, blocking the Trump administration from allowing the distribution of these plans.
In the letter, the Attorneys General call on Secretary Pompeo and Attorney General Sessions to take steps to ensure that Defense Distributed’s files are not available to anyone, especially those who pose a threat to public safety.
Since the temporary restraining order was put in place, Defense Distributed removed files for 3-D printed guns posted on its website, but several other websites have since re-posted these files online — and the federal government has taken no apparent action to have them removed.
A multistate coalition of Attorneys General sent a letter last week urging AG Sessions and Secretary Pompeo to withdraw from the settlement with Defense Distributed, writing that it recklessly disregards public safety. AG Sessions and Secretary Pompeo have yet to respond to the concerns and have not indicated any willingness to confront the urgent public safety risk posed by 3-D printed firearms.
The letter was signed by the Attorneys General of Massachusetts, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.