US judge blocks release of 3D gun blueprints amid uproar

A US judge has temporarily blocked the online publication of blueprints for 3D-printed firearms, in a last-ditch effort to stop a settlement President Donald Trump's administration had reached with the company releasing the digital documents.

Eight states and the District of Columbia, which houses the capital Washington, had filed a lawsuit against the federal government, calling its settlement with Texas-based Defense Distributed "arbitrary and capricious".

The Trump administration had settled a five-year legal fight by permitting the company to publish its website Defcad -- which founder Cody Wilson envisioned as a WikiLeaks for homemade firearms called "ghost guns".

Those weapons can be manufactured using 3D printers or personal steel mills, and lack traceable serial numbers. At least one of the guns can also be made from plastic, which is virtually invisible to metal detectors.

US District Judge Robert Lasnik in Seattle, Washington granted the plaintiffs' motion for a temporary restraining order blocking the release of the digital plans, and scheduled a hearing for August 10.

In a written statement, New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood, one of plaintiffs, called the ruling "a major victory for common sense and public safety."
"As we argued in the suit we filed yesterday, it is -- simply -- crazy to give criminals the tools to build untraceable, undetectable 3D printed guns at the touch of a button. Yet that's exactly what the Trump administration decided to allow."
"Already spoke to NRA, doesn't seem to make much sense!" White House spokesman Hogan Gidley expanded on the president's comments yesterday night, telling reporters: "It is currently illegal to own or make a wholly plastic gun of any kind -- including those made on a 3D printer. The administration supports this nearly two-decade old law."
"I intend to litigate," he told the magazine. "Americans have the unquestionable right to share this information."