Our man Leghorn introduced me to the adage “you can’t stop the signal.” The government of New South Wales, Australia doesn’t get it, doesn’t want to get it, or gets it and doesn’t give a damn. zdnet.com reports that “The NSW government amended the Firearms Act 1996 and the Weapons Prohibition Act 1998 last week, issuing several additions under the Firearms and Weapons Prohibition Legislation Amendment Bill 2015 which includes the creation of the new offence relating to 3D printed guns.” If an Aussie caught with same in the state is looking at some serious jail time . . .
Under the amendment, it is now considered an offence to possess digital blueprints for the manufacture of firearms on 3D printers or electronic milling machines.
The new offence carries a maximum penalty of 14 years’ imprisonment . . .
The Bill defines a digital blueprint as any type of digital or electronic reproduction of a technical drawing of the design of an object, and considers possession of a digital blueprint to include the possession of a computer or data storage device holding or containing the blueprint or of a document in which the blueprint is recorded; as well as control of the blueprint held in a computer that is in the possession of another person, be inside or outside of NSW . . .
The amended Bill also covers the acts of downloading or uploading the plans to, or from, file sharing services.
Needless to say there’s a police carve-out. Also needless to say, Big Brother. The ironic thing: by banning a form of information, the NSW government is giving Aussies good cause to want a 3D printed gun to defend themselves against government tyranny. Good luck with that.
Meanwhile, Defense Distributed’s Cody Wilson – whose digital software company was named in the report – tells TTAG that “In the name of progress they have foreclosed an entire division of human endeavor. This is another example of how a neo-progressive state has, in the name of liberalism, created an liberal nightmare.” [h/t JA]