Local gun advocates are speaking out against an attempt by lawmakers to stop a Texas group from releasing downloadable blueprints for 3D-printing guns.
Defense Distributed is currently blocked from making the documents available by a temporary injunction while a more permanent solution is drawn up by legislators.
That’s a move that the Connecticut Citizens Defense League sees as unconstitutional. The CCDL, a group formed in 2009, describes itself as "dedicated to protecting the unalienable right of all citizens to keep and bear arms, for the defense of both self and state."
For Scott Wilson of the CCDL, new legislation prohibiting 3D-printed guns represents another attack by politicians in favor of increased gun control.
“We still have laws on the books to protect people and I think this is an issue that is essentially a wedge-type of issue that are being created by proponents of gun control to try to drive a stake through the heart of legislators that do support Second Amendment rights,” he told Connecticut Public Radio.
CCDL recently withdrew support from GOP attorney general candidate Sue Hatfield after she said President Trump should put a nationwide ban on 3D-printed guns. But Wilson said it wasn’t Hatfield’s stated opposition to 3D gun printing that drew his organization’s ire -- it was her pronouncement that she’d revive legislation in the Connecticut General Assembly that would regulate so-called ghost guns, without a serial number.
“Right now, it is legal federally and under Connecticut law to manufacture your own firearm for personal use," said Wilson. "I think there’s right now a lot of crossover confusion about what is a ghost gun and what is a 3D-printed gun and I think in the minds of many that they’re actually the same types of firearms.”
Connecticut’s current Attorney General George Jepsen chimed in on the attempt to block the blueprint release when he announced in July that the state was joining several others in a lawsuit against the federal government.
As for ghost guns, that’s likely to be an issue bandied about in the run-up to next week’s primary elections.