Can't regulate the parts as they are used in many many many devices. So as far as I'm concerned this is worthless. I can build a fucking 3d printer from an old VCR and a hot glue gun.
this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2026
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I might print some guns purely out of spite.
In Minecraft.
Everytown for Gun Safety says recoveries of 3D-printed crime guns across 20 cities have risen nearly 1,000% over the past five years,
So... They found a total of ten 3d printed guns in the last 5 years?
325 are 3D out of 350,000 guns found in CA in connection to a crime in 2024, according to random assholes on reddit.
This is a pretty dumb thing to pass legislation on considering it's still VERY easy to buy a gun even in CA, another method of getting a gun isn't making it easier in any real sense.
Now to be totally fair, 325 is 325 more than 0, which would be the ideal number of 3d printed guns used in crime... But also, how many of those 3d printed gun users had access to a different gun and simply opted for the 3d printed one? I get the feeling it was somewhere around 325 of them
This is all ignoring the fact that I'm using a very liberal definition of the phrase "3d printed gun." I doubt anyone is using Songbirds for armed robberies lmao
Given they've postponed the standards until 2028, I am skeptical our legislators will be able to develop a viable benchmark. And then I don't imagine it's possible to enforce it.
This is likely to die in court.
They'll ask chatgpt to generate it. It doesn't need to be viable, it just needs to be impossible for manufacturers to comply with
I don't think California intends to act in bad faith and try to kill the 3D printer industry (or community). I think this is due to misconceptions similar to the notion that one can create encryption with a backdoor that only the good guys can use. It just doesn't math.
And that's exactly what is going to kill the law in the courts, much the way that they've upheld strong encryption and Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. Allowing the law to come into effect will cause too much damage to industry and the economy.
Granted I can't be absolutely certain of that. We've had a lot of incompetent (or corrupt) judges get confirmed in recent decades, so really anything can happen. But the thing they don't want is what happened after they tried to criminalize printed gun designs in the first place, and see the already-robust 3D printing underground get another growth boost.
My first 3d printer is a RepRap running marlin firmware... They couldn't make me make that 3d printer compliant.
[edit]
I wonder if the microcenter locations in CA are suddenly going to have empty shelves where the 3d printers used to be.
Mine is next to a harbor freight, and I have a 25% off to HF. Don't tempt me OP
Man what a way to fucking make everything unfun
Jokes on you, my 3D printer is offline
Shit, same. Mine is basically a custom built Ender3 with open source firmware. I could (theoretically anyway) write my own firmware for it and ignore the law.
2D printers are next.
2D printers were more than 15 years early https://www.pcworld.com/article/485139/counterfeit_money_on_color_laser_printers.html
The biggest difference between 2D and 3D printers other than a dimension, is their complexity. People can make their own 3D printer, so trying to regulate it is absurd. With 2D printers, the governments just have the handful of printer manufacturers build the restrictions into the machine and it's much harder for a random person to get around.
I meant the pre-computer, monochrome type of 2D printer, the one referenced in "freedom of the press", heh. Quick web search finds a prototype:
https://chytomo.com/en/accounting-for-typewriters/
Typewriters were relied on to create unauthorized self-published books, brochures, leaflets, and magazines. As a result, Soviet authorities began imposing strict controls on typewriter distribution. Every typewriter had its own registration number, which allowed the KGB and other repressive organizations to determine the source of unauthorized documents. Each typewriter’s unique imprint made it possible to find out who wrote the paper and where it could be printed. In “Diaries: Uncensored,” Les Taniuk mentioned that there were typewriters for checks on which nothing “like that” could be typed, and two more – carefully hidden. Ukrainian writer and translator Halyna Kyrpa had to destroy her typewriter after a reprint of “Internationalism or Russification” by Ukrainian literary critic, social activist, and dissident Ivan Dziuba was typed on it. (In her interview with Chytomo, she said that she smashed the machine with hammers and threw it into a lake.)
Can't you just buy one used?
2D printers already have government mandated shit in them to prevent printing and scanning dollar bills.
Under the proposal, printers would have to evaluate STL files, CAD files, or other geometric code using a firearm blueprint detection algorithm and block files flagged as capable of producing a firearm or illegal firearm parts, including conversion devices.
California's Department of Justice, or another relevant state agency, would have until January 1, 2028, to publish performance standards for detection algorithms and software control processes.
This is the problem when lawmakers write technical bills without speaking to technical people. They're going to publish standards for evaluating if your gcode is a firearm or firearm part? THAT'S FUCKING IMPOSSIBLE
It's not even that, building a firearm.....is legal...this shit going after printers makes no sense at all, it's fucking legal to print firearm parts.
Fun time to introduce/remind people of the Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect: The phenomenon of a person trusting newspapers for topics which that person is not knowledgeable about, despite recognizing the newspaper as being extremely inaccurate on certain topics which that person is knowledgeable about.
Same thing goes for laws and lawmakers. It's almost as if selecting our "leaders" from a narrow band of society who, for the most part, don't know shit about anything, does not lead to enlightened laws.
Lol I was just talking to my wife about that yesterday and how it's exactly like AI.
If you read something in the newspaper about your job, you're like "these fucking idiots got this all backwards." If you see AI output of an attempt at your job, it's the same thing.
But if you read an article about someone else's job, you think "that makes sense." Same about seeing AI trying to do someone else's job.
Cosplayers are going to be pissed.
BANNED
Yes they have no idea what they are asking. Stl is just gcode how do you look for a gun out of coordinates.
I bet they end up using a fucking llm
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I suppose my old Prusa just jumped a bit in value.
You can use a 3d printer to build a 3d printer. When they figure that out, will they try to stop those parts from being printed too?
Who did they consult on this, and did that person or persons purposely lead them astray, or were the consultants equally ignorant?
Hell, with modern stepper motors and extruded aluminum box frame, you don’t even need a 3D printer to build a 3D printer. It would certainly make it easier, but it’s not required. You could manufacture an entire 3D printer using off-the-shelf parts and a raspberry pi (or maybe even an Arduino) to control the motors. It wouldn’t be elegant, and it would require a lot of calibration… But it would be doable if someone were so inclined.
Repraps were controlled with Arduino Megas for a very long time. Up until the MK4 series, Prusa's Rambo or Einsy boards still ran on the ATMEGA2560 microcontroller.
All of this work is done.
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