California Attorney General Rob Bonta has filed a lawsuit against two companies and more than 100 individuals after they allegedly distributed computer code to 3D print ghost guns.
According to a release from Bonta’s office, Gatalog Foundation Inc. and CTRLPew LLC illegally distributed the computer code for “machine gun conversion devices including ‘Glock Switches,’ illegal large-capacity magazines, and other firearm-related products and components to individuals who are not licensed to manufacture firearms in California,” as well as illegally 3D printing firearms and machine guns.
The lawsuit argues that the state is currently facing a “public safety crisis from the proliferation of unserialized, untraceable, and unsafe firearms—commonly called ghost guns—sweeping across the state and the rise of dangerous firearm accessories such as auto-sears, which are used to convert semiautomatic firearms into machine guns.”
Going on to list laws that “specifically prohibit 3D printing firearms and
prohibited firearm accessories without a license to manufacture firearms,” as well as policies that prohibit the “distribution of computer code for printing them to those without a license,” the lawsuit claims that the companies and individuals have produced “over 150 different designs of lethal firearms and prohibited firearm accessories available to anyone with access to the Internet, including in California.”
Upon investigating the matter, the “People of the State of California,” listed as plaintiffs in the case, “downloaded the code and instructions necessary for building this deadly weapon from Defendants’ website with a few simple keystrokes. The download was performed from a computer in San Francisco with a California-based IP address.”
Last year, the Supreme Court upheld a Biden-era rule that regulates ghost guns in a 7-2 decision. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito filed dissenting opinions on the March 26 ruling.
