US District Judge Robert Lasnik in Seattle, Washington, has issued a temporary restraining order, blocking the online publication of blueprints for 3D-printable guns Tuesday, saying this information could cause irreparable harm to US citizens.
The ruling blocks a settlement agreement that Defense Distributed, the Texas-based company that created the plans for the printable guns, reached with the US government earlier in June.
Defense Distributed was originally asked to remove the plans from the web, because they violated US laws on weapon exports. Following a three-year row with the US government during the administration of former President Barack Obama, Defense Distributed finally won the permission to publish the plans online from the administration of President Donald Trump. The settlement was supposed to take effect Wednesday.
In the meantime, US Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Ed Markey (D-MA) called on the president to reverse his administration's decision to allow the publishing of the schematics. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo also issued a cease and desist order banning Defense Distributed from disseminating the plans in New York state.
Trump addressed the issue, tweeting that he was "looking into" the problem Tuesday.
"I am looking into 3-D Plastic Guns being sold to the public. Already spoke to NRA, doesn't seem to make much sense!" he said in a Twitter message.
"TPB has for close to 10 years been operating without taking down one single torrent due to pressure from the outside. And it will never start doing that," The Pirate Bay said at the time, arguing that the schematics would be made public on other forums, regardless of whether they took it down.
