New Jersey is accused of violating the First Amendment, not the Second, in its effort to block a gun company from releasing computer files with instructions on how to make untraceable 3D-printed guns.
The company, Defense Distributed, is in federal court in Texas with the Second Amendment Foundation asking for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal to prevent enforcement of a new law that they believe is a direct infringement of their First Amendment rights.
On Thursday, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed Senate Bill 2465, which is specifically aimed at censoring SAF and Defense Distributed, SAFÂ contends.
“During a press conference, Grewal acknowledged that this new measure was designed to prevent publication of instruction codes that would explain how to produce a firearm with a three-dimensional printer,” said SAF.
The court motion is part of a broader civil rights action against several governors, attorneys general and other government officials brought by SAF and Defense Distributed.
“We’ve had to take this extraordinary step to defend our First Amendment rights because Attorney General Grewal has literally threatened to ‘come after’ us, or anyone else, who is ‘contemplating making a printable gun,'” explained SAF founder and executive vice president Alan M. Gottlieb.
“Grewal and the governor aren’t merely trying to stop what people do, now they’re also trying to dictate what people think. That amounts to extremism on steroids.”
He said the complaint and filings were in Texas because that’s where Defense Distributed is located.
“Defense Distributed had reached a settlement with the government on this issue,” he said, “but various state attorneys general quickly tried to interfere. New Jersey is carrying this nonsense one step further by attempting to censor the company and the foundation. We are hopeful that the federal court quickly intervenes and stops this Orwellian behavior.
“This isn’t about guns,” Gottlieb added, “it’s about information and ideas, and the right of a free society to share that knowledge without fear of demagoguery by government officials who want people to live in their bubble.”
In September, SAF added four states and a number of individuals as defendants to a lawsuit originally against the federal government over its decision to renege on an agreement regarding the sharing of 3-D firearms printing technology.
WND reported in August the Second Amendment Foundation and Defense Distributed were pursuing a federal lawsuit against New Jersey and Los Angeles officials after they threatened a proposal to post online 3-D printer plans for guns.
The issue isn’t new. The Department of Justice and Defense Distributed already had settled a case in which the DOJ objected to the online sharing of 3-D firearms plans.
The settlement of that lawsuit would allow Defense Distributed to post its computer files online.
However, prior to the Aug. 1 effective date for the resolution, other governmental units launched their own lawsuits.
The new complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas in Austin, names both the New Jersey attorney general and the Los Angeles city attorney, accusing them of unconstitutional prior restraint.
Then SAF amended its case to add more defendants. The case now also names New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Pennsylvania Gov. Thomas Wolf, Delaware Attorney General Matthew Denn, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, along with original defendants, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal and Los Angeles City Attorney Michael Feuer.
