A federal judge in Seattle has issued a temporary restraining order to stop the release of blueprints to make untraceable and undetectable 3D-printed plastic guns.
Eight Democratic attorneys general, including New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, filed a lawsuit Monday seeking to block the federal government's settlement with Defense Distributed that makes the plans available online. They also sought a restraining order, arguing the 3D-printed guns would be a safety risk.
U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik issued the order Tuesday afternoon.
The company cannot release the files until a hearing is held on Sept. 12.
Attorney General Grewal also sued Defense Distributed to block the release after the company’s founder, Cody Wilson, filed a lawsuit against him. Grewal had filed a cease and desist letter related to the blueprints.
Grewal says that despite the ruling to block the release of the blueprints, many are already available online.
“Ten data sets are out – eight of them are blueprints, two of them were codes. That’s what he had out on his website until it got taken down. And so we’ll fight. If it is 10, we’ll take them down and if we find another website, we’ll take them down,” Grewal said. “We can’t roll over and allow this to be out in the public domain and allow it to be easy for criminals to hit ‘print’ and make a weapon. I can control the distribution of firearms but I can’t control the distribution of printers."
The Austin, Texas-based company had reached a settlement with the federal government in June that allows it to make the plans for the guns available for download Aug. 1
The restraining order puts that plan on hold for now.
In the meantime, Congressional Democrats have urged President Donald Trump to reverse the decision to let Defense Distributed publish the plans. Trump said Tuesday that he's "looking into" the idea, saying making 3D plastic guns available to the public "doesn't seem to make much sense!"
Wilson says that blocking the release of the blueprints is a violation of the First and Second amendments.
The Associated Press Wire Services contributed to this report.