With the resignation of Defense Distributed CEO Cody Wilson, the State Department has an opportunity to fix the agreement that allows for the online posting of blueprints for downloadable guns
Washington (September 26, 2018) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) called upon the Department of State to take advantage of a leadership change at downloadable gun company Defense Distributed and renegotiate a settlement agreement that currently permits the online publication of blueprints for the three-dimensional (3D) printing of undetectable firearms. Yesterday, Defense Distributed CEO Cody Wilson resigned in the wake of sexual assault charges against him. Senator Markey, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has announced his intention to place a hold on the nomination of R. Clarke Cooper to be an Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs – the position in charge of the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls that is at the center of the 3D printable gun controversy – unless the Trump administration changes its dangerous policy. In his letter to the State Department, Senator Markey urged it to use the opportunity presented by the leadership change at Defense Distributed to renegotiate the settlement agreement, or expect to have his hold on the Cooper nomination remain in place.
“The departure of Cody Wilson from Defense Distributed may give the State Department a chance to reengage with the company,” writes Senator Markey in his letter to Under Secretary of State Andrea Thompson. “Renewed settlement talks would give the State Department a forum in which to fix the mistake it made by inexplicably reversing its position in the litigation, entering into the settlement agreement in the first place, and agreeing to pay $40,000 of Defense Distributed’s attorneys’ fees.”
A copy of Senator Markey’s letter can be found HERE.
In 2013, the State Department told Defense Distributed that posting its 3D printable gun blueprints online and making them available worldwide violated federal export controls, which the State Department enforces through its Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. Defense Distributed responded by suing the State Department to allow it to post online its blueprints for making deadly, undetectable, and untraceable plastic weapons using 3D printers. As the litigation progressed, the federal district court overseeing the case, as well as a federal appeals court, sided with the State Department, and as recently as April of this year, the Trump administration argued for the dismissal of the lawsuit. But in a stunning and inexplicable reversal, the Trump administration settled the case in June, agreeing to exempt the online publication of 3D printable gun blueprints from the export controls. In a subsequent lawsuit brought by attorneys general from eight states and the District of Columbia, a federal judge in Washington state issued a preliminary injunction barring implementation of the settlement.
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