Dem lawmaker calls on Pompeo to keep export restrictions on 3D gun-printing software

A Democratic lawmaker sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday urging the Trump administration to halt the planned relaxation of export controls surrounding software for 3D printing machines containing designs for handguns.

Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) told Pompeo that the decision would lead to the “unrestricted manufacture of firearms” around the world without the Trump administration taking action to block the move.

{mosads}”There are several disturbing aspects of the Department’s action. Foremost is the likelihood that weapons will become available to anyone with a laptop and a 3D printer,” Engel wrote.

“With these stealthy weapons in the hands of terrorists, lone wolf killers, or mentally unstable individuals, it will become virtually impossible to protect anyone from gun violence,” he added.

Engel’s letter comes following a court settlement between the federal government and an activist who sued for the right to post software online, including designs for 3D printed handguns.

The settlement allows gun activists and others to freely begin selling the software online. The government responded to the settlement by announcing that the plans were exempt from International Traffic in Arms Regulations, which oversee exports of defense materials, data and services.

Guns printed from the plans available online are untraceable and do not contain serial numbers, making crimes committed with printed weapons much harder to solve.

“We asked for the Moon and we figured the government would reject it, but they didn’t want to go to trial,” Alan Gottlieb, the founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, which assisted the activist, Cody Wilson, in his case told the network.

“The government fought us all the way and then all of the sudden folded their tent.”