ITAR and First/Second Amendments
The news you've recently heard about the Obama Administration regulating speech related to guns on the Internet is true and actually worse than the NRA-ILA message has indicated. The State Department is now formalizing the power to police all public exchange of data related to any category of munition online. I'm frustrated with the NRA's rhetoric, which is that ITAR has not yet been used to block websites or harm public speech. This is a lie springing from the organization's refusal to develop a position on homemade and 3D firearms.
The Sate Department has in fact harassed and censored this company for two years with the ITAR. Every compliance move we make in an attempt to publish CAD files or gun software is re-routed, stymied or ignored. This Federal power grab isn't a hypothetical, future scenario. It is already US policy and is being used to target politically-motivated speech related to the Second Amendment.
State has even directly threatened this company over opening our Ghost Gunner forum. The forum is literally closed to registration as of today because the US government doesn't want us to be able to support an open-source DIY product expanding your 2A franchise. We are unable to publicly develop our machine with you until this agency has been corrected.
Because of this malicious set of laws, Defense Distributed filed suit against the State Department in early May. We've brought a First Amendment lawsuit and we are joined by the Second Amendment foundation and other legal talents in Texas. I want to emphasize that none of the gun lobbies are funding this effort and neither are they willing. Defense Distributed alone has has funded this multi-year endeavor and only by the success of Ghost Gunner and your patience were we able to afford to reach this filing.
I'll update you all at the right time about this matter in more depth, but our current filings may be found here. Our first hearing is ordered for July 6.
I at least hope that with the NRA's spotlight and the public comment period offered for the new regulations, the reg will be pulled. Comments will be accepted on the regulations until August 3, 2015, and they may be submitted online at regulations.gov or via e-mail at DDTCPublicComments@state.govwith the subject line, ‘‘ITAR Amendment—Revisions to Definitions; Data Transmission and Storage.''
But don't be numb to just what this is. This isn't about firearm industry compliance. It's about divesting you of any free and public access to the means of your own defense; about pruning you from gunsmithing culture and its scientific exchange. Their claim is that gun technology is exclusively commercial and military. You're a pleb and it isn't for you.
Remember that your Revolution was fought for less.
