A California state lawmaker has introduced a bill to require 3D printers to contain “firearm detection algorithms” to prevent the production of guns.
On Thursday, California Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan announced legislation to prevent the proliferation of 3D-printed guns, which can be untraceable and obtained without going through an official supplier.
Bauer-Kahan, a Democrat, also pointed to a case where police arrested a man in Sonoma County, California, as part of an investigation into the manufacturing of illegal guns. Police recovered three 3D printers, along with 157 handguns, many of which appear to be 3D-printed lower receivers for the firearms.
“This legislation takes a proactive approach to public safety by ensuring that 3D printers sold in California include the technology to block the production of illegal firearms,” Bauer-Kahan said.
(Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
But the bill, AB-2047, also calls for creating a new process to verify that 3D printers contain the firearm-blocking algorithms. It’s why Adafruit, a marketplace for do-it-yourself computer parts, is criticizing the legislation, saying it appears to call for a “state-maintained roster of approved makes and models.”
“If your printer isn’t on the list by March 1, 2029, it can’t be sold. In addition, knowingly disabling or circumventing the blocking software is a misdemeanor,” Adafruit wrote in a blog post. Meanwhile, vendors that sell 3D printers without the blocking tech could face a civil lawsuit.
AB-2047 would also require the “Department of Justice or other relevant state agency” to oversee the proposed regulation’s implementation, including certifying the firearm-blocking algorithms for use in the 3D printers. The blocking tech can include “hardware, firmware, or other integrated technological measures” capable of detecting firearm-related blueprints, although the success rate doesn’t have to be 100%.
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Still, Adafruit says “accurately identifying gun parts from geometry alone is incredibly hard, desktop printers lack the processing power to run this kind of analysis, and the open-source firmware that runs most machines makes any blocking requirement trivially easy to bypass.
“The state should prosecute people who make illegal thing, not add useless surveillance software on every tool in every classroom, library, and garage in the state,” Adafruit added.
The blog post also warns that the bill is one of several that have been trying to rein in 3D-printed guns by allegedly adding burdensome regulations. In 2023, a New York lawmaker floated a bill to require background checks to buy a 3D printer, but the legislation never took off.
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I’ve been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I’m currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country’s technology sector.
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