California ghost-gun bill wants 3D printers to play cop, EFF says
by Bender on 4/14/2026, 7:08:32 PM
https://www.theregister.com/2026/04/14/eff_california_3dprinted_firearms/
Comments
by: horsawlarway
Personally, I see this as an assault on 3d printing more than any real attempt to regulate guns.<p>I own several 3d printers. If I wanted to make something resembling a firearm I'd go to home depot WAY before I bothered 3d printing parts. You basically just need a metal tube, and well... a pipe from home depot does that much better than trying to 3d print something much less reliable.<p>So given we don't do this regulation for any of the much more reliable ways to create unregistered firearms... what's special about 3d printers?<p>So my assumption is immediately that some relatively large lobbying group feels threatened by 3d printing, and is using this as a driver to try to control access and limit business impact.<p>Either way, this is bad legislation.
4/14/2026, 8:17:14 PM
by: codedokode
Sorry if it is a dumb question, but why in USA people try to regulate 3D printing instead of banning sale of bullets without a firearm owner license? What stops people from buying Chinese printers or components on AliExpress? Or using an open source printer? At the same time, if you cannot buy bullets, your plastic gun is worthless.
4/14/2026, 8:53:32 PM
by: simplyluke
The 3d printer gun legislation has been rearing its head in a bunch of states this year, and generally with very similar patterns. I suspect some of the pro-gun-control groups have been pushing it to lawmakers given most legislation is basically copy-pastes from lobbying groups at both the state and federal level. Colorado, Washington, New York, and now California have all floated legislation attempting to make device-level restrictions around the issue. I only followed Washington's in depth, and they ended up removing all the requirements on manufactures, but did criminalize possession of files which I suspect won't hold up to a first amendment challenge.
4/14/2026, 8:08:56 PM
by: MisterTea
> The primary goal is clear and simple: to require 3D printer manufacturers to use a state-certified algorithm that checks digital design files for firearm components and blocks print jobs that would produce prohibited parts.<p>"state-certified algorithm" has a really nice tyrannic ring to it. I am sure once this has passed the rich people can finally sleep at night knowing they are safe from roving gangs of armed Mangiones.
4/14/2026, 7:51:32 PM
by: krunck
Lets imagine a similar situation but instead of with an additive manufacturing process they try to regulate a subtractive manufacturing process: a traditional CNC machine. There is no way to prevent the CNC system from machining gun parts as along as the machining is done in discrete steps with the same work piece. The software can't know what sitting on the CNC table.<p>In additive manufacturing it is more difficult but not impossible to print a bunch of pieces that look nothing like a gun part but and in the end be assembled into a gun.<p>In both the above cases there would need to be sophisticated surveillance software to even come close to detecting "gun-ness."<p>While I don't have a horse in the gun control race, I do have one in the open-source, running a local OS, running what software I want, and controlling what that software does races.
4/14/2026, 8:30:41 PM
by: tracker1
So, I cannot 3d print a squirt gun or a nerf style gun either? This print looks "scary" you cannot print it.
4/14/2026, 8:14:52 PM
by: maininformer
A. What if some part looks like some other non-gun part? B. What if they can further break down the pieces to avoid detection?
4/14/2026, 8:10:06 PM
by: asdff
Why don't these bills go after ammo or gunpowder access? Seems as long as you have access to a cylinder, and ammunition, you can make a gun.
4/14/2026, 7:49:11 PM
by: ed_balls
I could ask LLM to find me "legal" parts that are 1:1 with gun parts or even better find metal parts in craftcloud3d.com or sendcutsend.com. With big enough database it could find right items on Amazon. It's impossible to legislate.
4/14/2026, 8:19:19 PM
by: legohead
waste of time and resources. you aren't going to win a fight against 3d printers. might as well outlaw the printers completely.
4/14/2026, 8:48:22 PM
by: ginkgotree
I'm so glad I left California 6 years ago. They are going to regulate and tax their startups and innovators away to other states. This is supremely stupid.
4/14/2026, 7:52:57 PM
by: rdtsc
> California's proposed legislation to put the burden of blocking 3D-printed firearms onto printer manufacturers<p>I can only assume California has solved all its major problems if policing 3D printers is at the top of the agenda. It's like when someone complains their neighbor can afford two yachts and they can only afford one, you know they are doing pretty well if that's their major concern.
4/14/2026, 7:59:33 PM
by: doublerabbit
Next up flinging rubber bands with your two fingers to be banned.
4/14/2026, 8:52:09 PM
by: comboy
We are sorry, but your print resembles random princess from Disney too much (actually, we won't tell you which). Just following the law you know..
4/14/2026, 8:18:40 PM
by: subhobroto
I don't understand the problem solving mindset that thinks banning guns would solve the problem of a person intent on causing harm.<p>In the U.K., where I feel guns are only showpieces (do even cops have them?), stabbing is a known problem.<p>In India, where ammo is way more expensive than machetes and knives, people are literally murdered with them.<p>The <i>only</i> argument I can understand, when it comes to banning guns, is that it reduces the blast radius that an evil person can have.<p>So what's next, lock down the air, radio, roads, internet, water, food supply chains because these are all attack vectors?<p>If that's the proposal, what's my plan when coyotes and mountain lions attack my child and I on our regular walks on rural property?
4/14/2026, 7:55:53 PM
by: ChrisArchitect
Source: <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/04/dangers-californias-legislation-censor-3d-printing" rel="nofollow">https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/04/dangers-californias-le...</a> (<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47759420">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47759420</a>)
4/14/2026, 7:55:35 PM
by: alterom
It's ridiculous that this is even being discussed. The people proposing the bill must have zero understanding of how a 3D printer works.<p>It makes as much sense as requiring saw manufacturers to implement protections that restrict what can be cut out with a saw.<p>Or pen manufacturers being required to enforce copyright.<p>Any form of this bill will 100% fail to attain its stated objective, while having horrendous not-quite-unintended consequences.<p>And in the end, what's to stop someone from assembling an <i>unlicensed</i> 3D printer to make <i>unlicensed</i> prints? That's how the industry literally began.<p>(Not to mention: what do they think would happen to the hundreds of millions of existing "dumb" 3D printers? They won't disappear because there's a law).<p><i>Sigh</i>.
4/14/2026, 7:47:40 PM
by: jmyeet
I'm surprised the EFF didn't address the issue that traditional printer manufacturers already comply with law enforcement, specifically that a fingerprint of yellow tracking dots [1] are printed and printers will often refuse to or fail to copy images of money.<p>My point is there's already precedent for printers cooperating with authorities so one can see this as simply an extension to 3D printer manufacturers.<p>I suspect it's a losing battle for the EFF and 3D printer manufacturers to resist some kind of fingerprinting or even the prohibition of things that are guns.<p>I'm not saying that's right or wrong. That's just what I expect to happen. And if you want to argue against it, you should address the printer tracking dot issue or argue how this is different.<p>[1]: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printer_tracking_dots" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printer_tracking_dots</a>
4/14/2026, 8:07:06 PM
by: throwatdem12311
I just laugh whenever I hear “ghost gun”.<p>> On January 13, 2014 a certain State Senator (no reason to name names) held a press conference where he held a modern rifle in his hands and stated, “This is a ghost gun. This right here has the ability with a .30-caliber clip to disperse with 30 bullets within half a second. Thirty magazine clip in half a second.”<p>Anyone that knows even a little bit about guns knows that this is utter nonsense, and it was appropriately memed into oblivion.<p>Most anti-gun activists and legislators seem to have no more knowledge than this - which is to say, none.
4/14/2026, 8:03:40 PM
by: dlev_pika
AFAIK If I try to scan a dollar bill, both the hardware and the software won’t let me be.<p>How is this different?
4/14/2026, 8:09:30 PM