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Gun Maker’s Match 3
April 28, 2023
The third annual Gun Maker’s Match was held in Monroeville, PA last weekend. The event featured competitions in 3D Printed and Kit Build divisions.
We’d like to send a special congratulations to Mr. Snow, who took first in all his divisions this year (PCC, Rifle, and .22). All three of his builds were AR-00, a concept from Ghost Gunner.
Notes on Mr. Snow’s builds:
The 22lr was an AR-00 (Zero Percent) made on the GG3 with a CMMG dedicated 4.5 inch barrel and suppressors.
The 9mm PCC used a 16 inch barrel with a PSA bolt, 10oz buffer, standard AR buffer spring… hybrid 3D printed lower with metal buffer tower.
The rifle is the same hybrid AR-00 print with milled buffer tower.
Mr. Snow
Desktop CNC and home 3D printing are married techniques, and their union should be defended in our movement. Anyone telling you otherwise doesn’t want to win.
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On Ten Years of DEFCAD
March 7, 2023
This week will mark the ten year anniversary of the first public exposition of the principles of 3D gun printing. The following remarks were made at SXSW in March 2013. We had only just begun work on Liberator.
These words, before a public forum, are the birth of your discourse. Listening to them again, I find the thoughts (to twist Richard III) sent before their time into this breathing world already formed, already finished.
May they be a mirror in which you find your character, 3D gun printer:
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Sacrum Mamurio
March 3, 2023
Mamurius Veturius is regarded by ancient custom as the smith who made the ancilia that hung in the temple of Mars, the war god. Because the Roman calendar originally began in March, Mamurius rituals once marked the transition from the old year to the new in antiquity.
We have much to thank the war god for this March. He humbles all corporate gun control before our Legion in one week.
In VanDerStok v. Garland, Judge O’Connor delivers an injunction to Defense Distributed. The document follows. This is not just a blow to ATF, who pushed a new definition of “firearm” at their peril. It is also a defeat for Giffords, who were the agents of this illegal attempt to expand the Gun Control Act through the APA process. Their lobbying and regulatory laundry has now spectacularly backfired, and I’m going to personally send them a card and fruit basket.
In Everytown v. DEFCAD, the parties have reached a settlement. According to the terms of that settlement I will say, on behalf of DEFCAD, we are gratified that we were able to work with the parties to reach a resolution and bring this matter to a close. Some words of admonition are warranted for two of our co-defendants, who lost their nerve and composure in this fight. But fear makes men restless. They fall to shouting at night to keep up their courage.
Brady’s cases against Ghost Gunner and the rest of the 80 percent industry connected to the Tehama shooting have also been settled in Orange County, California. Some four years in, Brady admits they never had a case to begin with, and are now rightly being sued by some of the victims’ families for being taken on a ride.
If you’d like to support our legal efforts, please join LEGIO.
DefDist Litigation Summer Roundup
September 19, 2022
Since April our industry was more than busy dealing with Biden’s new ATF rule. Its confused rollout, as well as the frenzied blue state response to the Supreme Court’s decision in Bruen, have made for all kinds of fun and games this summer.
Let’s see where we are as of late September 2022.
On Sept. 2, Tactical Machining and FPC landed an early, mortal blow against the ATF frame and receiver rule in the Northern District of Texas. The court has since denied motions for transfer and is considering expansion of its preliminary injunction to Tactical Machining’s customers, members of FPC, and Defense Distributed.
The Fifth Circuit has expedited the appeal in our long-running First Amendment lawsuit against New Jersey and the State Department. Its most recent order is below. We expect to return to New Orleans in November or so for something like a season finale.
California’s SB 1327 has law firms across the country staying or dismissing their Second Amendment cases in California. We don’t feel like waiting the bastards out. For us, the next civil war is already here. Best to start digging trenches.
You’d have to ask Everytown about this one. Is three appeals to the Second Circuit enough for them? We could make it four by the end of the year, but recent filings would suggest settlement is possible.
Ah, the green leaves of summer. If you’d like to support our legal efforts, please join LEGIO.
Defense Distributed v. Grewal, Fifth Circuit Arguments, Round Three
September 13, 2022
It’s once again that time of year where DD travels to New Orleans to watch New Jersey defend its illegal speech law before a hostile appellate panel.
The Fifth Circuit ordered arguments on our injunction motion as quickly as possible this year. This haste, and the fact that none other than Jeremy Feigenbaum has to go to bat for the NJAG, suggests the stakes.
Could this be the one? Guess we’ll see how the judges are feeling tomorrow at 1:00.
If you’d like to support our legal efforts, please join LEGIO.
Defense Distributed v. Bonta
September 1, 2022
Legion,
Yesterday, with your support, DD and The Second Amendment foundation filed the first Bruen challenge to California’s restrictions on precursor parts and making firearms with modern tools. The bills we’re challenging are AB 1621 and SB 1327.
The case is Defense Distributed v. Robert Bonta et al., 1:2022-cv-06200 (C.D. Cal), and can be read below:
This proxy battle between Texas and California augurs a broader civil war. Read about California’s incredible restrictions, and share with your friends at: ca.ghostguns.com.
If you’d like to support our legal efforts, please join LEGIO.
On Open Source at DEFCAD
August 18, 2022
The political innocence of the artists at work in our community is a given. 3D gun developers draw firstly from their familiarity with computers and design software, and not from a common ideology.
No doubt zoomer social distress and alienation is the great motor of the guncad struggle. Because this play struggle can be unpredictable, driven by personality disorder, and lack political orientation, we militants at DEFCAD have built organizational and aesthetic buffers to protect the commons. Among these is an enforcement of free and open source licenses for files contributed by the public and our creator partners.
The DEFCAD Terms of Service, Sections 2 and 3, as well as the DEFCAD Content Distribution Agreement, Section 3, require uploaders and partners to expressly declare their uploads are licensed open source, and that they disclaim any legal power that might be used to prevent the FOSS use of these files.
In Marxist terms, aesthetics are a source of tension between artists and militants. I still believe subversive play is more noble than our site’s political “work”, so I offer some communist avenues for anti-DEFCAD radicals:
GG3 Closed Loop Spindle Control
August 4, 2022
Beta testing is now open for LEGIO members who would like to work with Ghost Gunner 3’s closed-loop spindle control, a feature supported by all GG3 machines shipped since 2019.
A summary of the changes GG closed-loop spindle control introduces:
To see this new firmware in action, view the videos below of the GG3 cutting a 17-4 steel Turner’s cube.
We extend this beta testing invitation to LEGIO members who own a Ghost Gunner 3. All may apply, but preference will be given to individuals who:
To participate in this beta, please email us at [email protected].
Everytown v. DEFCAD Summer Special
July 20, 2022
Eugune Volokh makes a decent point about our *third* appeal (in 8 months) to the Second Circuit. New York would have us give up creator anonymity to litigate jurisdiction, OR give up jurisdiction to litigate anonymously. This is a false choice delivered in bad faith, and we are not interested in taking it.
I’d like to personally commend the co-defendants in this case, especially The Gatalog, whose organizational example has not in any way been imbecilic or at cross-purposes.
Biden “Ghost Gun” Rule, Part I
April 20, 2022
Little of substance has been reported concerning the actual, legal effects and function of the new ATF receiver rule. The text itself is some 364 pages.
Defense Distributed will sue ATF to stop this rewrite of the GCA, and I have more detailed notes to share, but my summary impressions of the rule follow below:
Ghost Gunner and our related companies will not have to alter our business or model. ATF goes out of their way to exempt 80% rifle receivers and, by analogy, 1911 frames and others from re-classification as firearms. The 80% market, and homemade “ghost guns” will largely survive. The only sure casualties at this time are plastic receiver kits like the Polymer80, SS80, etc. and so-called “complete parts kits.” ATF would like to suggest that 80% receivers sold with “more” components will face tougher scrutiny and may be firearms. We will see about that.
ATF wants to knock down receiver kits and other kinds of weapons build kits. The rule and its standards revoke all previous guidance and require everyone in the industry to re-submit their receiver products with whatever fixtures, instructions, and marketing material may accompany them. This is likely illegal, but will not interrupt the sale of 80% receivers, nor of fixtures and tooling in general.
ATF retreated from their attempt to assign multiple receivers to future firearms designs. This was meant in part to capture and constrain digital gunsmithing innovations, but the flood of industry comments shamed the agency out of this approach. Going forward, firearms of almost every design will have one component the ATF likes the most for regulation and classification. ATF admits they do not have the authority to regulate files or design work for 3D guns.
A longer discussion of the rule in general with The Reload can be seen here. More to come.
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