California’s new bill requires DOJ-approved 3D printers that report on themselves targeting general-purpose machines.
Assembly Member Bauer-Kahan introduced AB-2047, the “California Firearm Printing Prevention Act,” on February 17th. The bill would ban the sale or transfer of any 3D printer in California unless it appears on a state-maintained roster of approved makes and models… certified by the Department of Justice as equipped with “firearm blocking technology.” Manufacturers would need to submit attestations for every make and model. The DOJ would publish a list. If your printer isn’t on the list by March 1, 2029, it can’t be sold. In addition, knowingly disabling or circumventing the blocking software is a misdemeanor.
The 3D printing lobby isn’t as big as the NRA.
I don’t think it has anything to do with gun manufacturers, or gun violence. Someone who wants to shoot something is going to find a way.
I’m betting it’s pressure from AI companies. “We need to find a use for this product soon or we’ll lose social permission” or whatever Mr. Microsoft said the other day. And suddenly a couple of states that have big AI companies in them propose legislation that could only be answered by large amounts of machine learning power.
This isn’t in reaction to some shooting with a 3D printed gun, is it? I’d have heard about that, the America Bad crowd here on Lemmy wouldn’t have passed up a chance to blast that from the rooftops if it had happened. School shootings have faded into the background; that’s not “newsworthy” anymore because it’s become normal. A shooting with a 3D printed gun would have made headlines, and it hasn’t. Until we all got used to it and moved our attention elsewhere, there would be a shooting, the 24 hour tabloids would broadcast a liberal arts major’s understanding of the firearms used, the bleeding heart left would call for a ban on those specific kinds of guns, the childrape right would call them retards for getting the technical details extremely wrong, a governor 3 states away would sign a ban on bayonet lugs and collapsible stocks on rifles, in time for someone to shoot up an army base with a pistol. If a 3D printed gun shooting had happened, you could get another round of that cycle going.
That’s not what happened though. So what did?