3D printing of guns doesn't make sense: Trump

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the 3D printing of plastic guns "doesn't seem to make much sense" after his administration reached a legal agreement with a group promoting this activity.

"I am looking into 3-D Plastic Guns being sold to the public. Already spoke to NRA, doesn't seem to make much sense!" said Trump in a Twitter post, referring to the National Rifle Association, the powerful US pro-gun organization and lobbying group, Efe reported.

The President provided no further details on the matter in his tweet, which comes one day after the 3D printing of plastic weaponry became legal in the US.

The Texas-based Defence Distributed organization announced its plans to once again publish on its Web site on Aug. 1 instruction manuals for pistols and rifles turned out on 3D printers after reaching a settlement in the matter with the federal government in June.

The agreement was the conclusion of a five-year legal battle in which the 2009-2017 government of former President Barack Obama argued before two federal judges, but the Supreme Court refused to hear the case, that the downloadable manuals for how to print plastic weapons violated firearms export laws.

However, in a sudden decision, the Trump administration reached an agreement in June with Defence Distributed to allow the group to once again provide the instruction manuals for printing 3D weapons on the Internet starting on August 1.

In addition, the agreement established that the manuals are approved for publication in any form and that the US government will pay $40,000 to cover the legal fees incurred by Cody Wilson, the founder of the group and the individual at the centre of the controversy.

On Monday, eight states and Washington DC filed suit to fight the settlement between the US government and Defense Distributed arguing that providing the downloadable plans online will allow criminals to acquire weapons without going through the standard sales, registration and background check procedures.

--IANS

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