Following the recent announcement that he joined a multistate lawsuit to prohibit the release of 3D-printed firearm designs by Defense Distributed, Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions demanding the State Department take immediate action to remove downloadable plans for 3D-printed guns that were illegally posted online by several websites.
The letter, signed by 22 attorneys general, criticizes the State Department's failure to mitigate the harms of its settlement with Defense Distributed, an online company that was authorized by the federal government to post plans for 3D-printed guns online. Last week, a multistate lawsuit filed by attorneys general seeking to stop the Department of State's action won a temporary restraining order from a federal judge in Seattle, blocking the publication of downloadable plans online.
"With the Court issuing a restraining order prohibiting Defense Distributed from posting 3D-printed firearm designs online, the State Department should have immediately taken steps to shut down other groups who have posted the designs illegally, yet the inaction by the State Department to do anything practically invalidates the Court's order by allowing the proliferation of these designs by other sites. It's a complete dereliction of duty by the State Department," said Attorney General Kilmartin.
In the letter, the state attorneys general call on Secretary Pompeo and AG Sessions to take steps to ensure that Defense Distributed's files are not available to anyone, especially those who pose a threat to public safety.
Since the temporary restraining order was put in place, Defense Distributed removed files for 3D-printed guns posted on its website, but several other easily accessible websites have since re-posted these files online and the federal government has taken no apparent action to have them removed.
Joining Attorney General Kilmartin in today's coalition are state attorneys general from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.