New York 3D printer blocking technology mandate: Difference between revisions
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knowing the four rules, wearing eye and ear pro, and using both hands is gun safety. everytown is gun control. |
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==Background== | ==Background== | ||
The law responds to firearms that can be produced from digital design files on consumer additive-manufacturing hardware, including untraceable ghost guns and pistol-conversion devices that turn a semi-automatic handgun into a machine gun. Governor Hochul's office presented the budget measures as a response to illegal 3D-printed ghost guns and do-it-yourself machine guns, pairing the 3D-printer rules with new criminal penalties for digital gun files.<ref name="gov" /> The gun | The law responds to firearms that can be produced from digital design files on consumer additive-manufacturing hardware, including untraceable ghost guns and pistol-conversion devices that turn a semi-automatic handgun into a machine gun. Governor Hochul's office presented the budget measures as a response to illegal 3D-printed ghost guns and do-it-yourself machine guns, pairing the 3D-printer rules with new criminal penalties for digital gun files.<ref name="gov" /> The gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety characterized the package as shutting down what it called the ''"plastic pipeline"'' of do-it-yourself firearms.<ref name="everytown" /> The private creation of firearms for personal use, including via 3D printing, is not prohibited by US law,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-09-11 |title=Privately Made Firearms {{!}} ATF |url=https://www.atf.gov/firearms/privately-made-firearms |url-status=live |website=Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives}}</ref> but New York State has its own legislation prohibiting privately made firearms.<ref>{{Cite web |title=NY State Senate Bill 2021-S14A |url=https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2021/S14 |url-status=live}}</ref> | ||
'''Rather than moving as a standalone firearms bill with its own floor debate, the measure was enacted inside the Public Protection and General Government article of the state budget''', as Part C of S. 9005-C / A. 10005-C.<ref name="bill" /> Part C is split into Subpart A, which adds the criminal-law definitions and file offenses, and Subpart B, which creates the working group and file library in Executive Law § 837-aa and the device-sales requirement in General Business Law § 396-eeee.<ref name="bill" /><ref name="bill-pdf" /> The National Rifle Association's Institute for Legislative Action objected to the use of the budget as the vehicle, calling it a ''"strategic move to put divisive legislation into an all-or-nothing budget bill"'' rather than passing the measure as a standalone bill subject to its own debate.<ref name="nra" /> | '''Rather than moving as a standalone firearms bill with its own floor debate, the measure was enacted inside the Public Protection and General Government article of the state budget''', as Part C of S. 9005-C / A. 10005-C.<ref name="bill" /> Part C is split into Subpart A, which adds the criminal-law definitions and file offenses, and Subpart B, which creates the working group and file library in Executive Law § 837-aa and the device-sales requirement in General Business Law § 396-eeee.<ref name="bill" /><ref name="bill-pdf" /> The National Rifle Association's Institute for Legislative Action objected to the use of the budget as the vehicle, calling it a ''"strategic move to put divisive legislation into an all-or-nothing budget bill"'' rather than passing the measure as a standalone bill subject to its own debate.<ref name="nra" /> | ||
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==Reactions== | ==Reactions== | ||
On the gun | On the gun control side, the Governor's office presented the law as setting ''"first-in-the-nation minimum safety standards for 3D printers sold in New York to be equipped with basic technology that prevents the unlicensed, illegal production of lethal firearms and firearm parts,"'' and directed the Division of Criminal Justice Services to lead the expert task force.<ref name="gov" /> Everytown for Gun Safety, which had urged the legislature to adopt the measure, praised the budget as nation-leading action against do-it-yourself machine guns and 3D-printed firearms.<ref name="everytown" /> In written testimony to the Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means committees on February 12, 2026, Everytown policy counsel Elisabeth Ryan urged lawmakers to support Part C of the budget bill, which she said would ''"require that all 3D printers sold in the state be equipped with technology that will block any files designed to produce firearms, their parts, and illegal accessories."''<ref name="everytown-testimony" /> | ||
On the maker and digital-rights side, the Electronic Frontier Foundation campaigned against the proposal under the banner ''"Stop New York's Attack on 3D Printing,"'' arguing the approach burdens lawful makers and rests on technology that does not exist.<ref name="eff" /> Technical writers at Techdirt, drawing on analysis from the open-source hardware company Adafruit, focused on the classification problem and the breadth of the printer definition rather than the policy goal, arguing the text as written reaches far beyond firearms and is unworkable as a scanning mandate.<ref name="techdirt" /> | On the maker and digital-rights side, the Electronic Frontier Foundation campaigned against the proposal under the banner ''"Stop New York's Attack on 3D Printing,"'' arguing the approach burdens lawful makers and rests on technology that does not exist.<ref name="eff" /> Technical writers at Techdirt, drawing on analysis from the open-source hardware company Adafruit, focused on the classification problem and the breadth of the printer definition rather than the policy goal, arguing the text as written reaches far beyond firearms and is unworkable as a scanning mandate.<ref name="techdirt" /> | ||