California's New Bill Requires DOJ-Approved 3D Printers That Report on Themselves (adafruit.com)
- Reference: 0180828748
- News link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/02/19/2219256/californias-new-bill-requires-doj-approved-3d-printers-that-report-on-themselves
- Source link: https://blog.adafruit.com/2026/02/19/californias-new-bill-requires-doj-approved-3d-printers-that-report-on-themselves/
> Assembly Member Bauer-Kahan introduced [4]AB-2047 , the "California Firearm Printing Prevention Act," on February 17th. The bill would ban the sale or transfer of any 3D printer in California unless it appears on a state-maintained roster of approved makes and models... certified by the Department of Justice as equipped with "firearm blocking technology." Manufacturers would need to submit attestations for every make and model. The DOJ would publish a list. 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.
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> [...] As Michael Weinberg [5]wrote after the New York and Washington proposals dropped⦠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 Firearms Policy Coalition [6]flagged AB-2047 on X , and the reactions tell you everything. Jon Lareau called it "stupidity on steroids," pointing out that a simple spring-shaped part has no way of revealing its intended use. The Foundry put it plainly: "Regulating general-purpose machines is another. AB-2047 would require 3D printers to run state-approved surveillance software and criminalize modifying your own hardware."
[1] https://blog.adafruit.com/2026/02/19/californias-new-bill-requires-doj-approved-3d-printers-that-report-on-themselves/
[2] https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/01/26/0035209/washington-state-may-mandate-firearm-blueprint-detection-algorithms-for-3d-printers
[3] https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/01/15/2236205/new-york-introduces-legislation-to-crack-down-on-3d-printers-that-make-ghost-guns
[4] https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB2047
[5] https://michaelweinberg.org/blog/2026/02/04/3d-printer-gun-screen/
[6] https://x.com/gunpolicy/status/2024157074406441167
"stupidity-on-steroids dept" (Score:2)
What else should one expect from all these red states?
Re:"stupidity-on-steroids dept" (Score:4, Informative)
Today I learned that the states proposing these insane 3D printer bans, California, Washington, and New York - some of the most rabidly liberal states in the US - are, in fact, "red states".
I mean, if you mean USSR red, then... yeah.
Re: (Score:2)
From your prescient assessment it would seem that the country formerly known as the USA has boiled down to just two shades of red, USSR-red and ruzzkie-pederation-red.
Congratulations, I guess.
Re: (Score:2)
"DOJ" in this case refers to the California Department of Justice, not the US Federal Department of Justice.
Text of the proposed California Assembly bill is here:
[1]https://leginfo.legislature.ca... [ca.gov]
[1] https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB2047
Super Soaker 50 Trigger (Score:3)
How is this software going to know you're not repairing a water gun?
California causes cancer.
Re: (Score:2)
I know expert in guns but the trigger isn't going to be the issue. That's part of the frame. It's the receiver that's the problem because that's the part that is needed for the forensics and tracing.
Re: (Score:2)
Quick education in guns:
The receiver is whatever the ATF says it is. In some cases, the frame is the receiver (for example a revolver, or a traditionally manufactured pistol). In other cases, the metal rails that nest in the interchangeable plastic frame are the receiver.
A trigger is typically not considered part of the receiver. However, there's nothing in the proposed law that says that the trigger shall be excluded from consideration as part of an overall algorithm to prevent printing of "a firearm."
[1]h [ca.gov]
[1] https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB2047
criminalize useing NON HP INK pass that bill now!! (Score:2)
criminalize useing NON HP INK pass that bill now!!
Re: (Score:2)
People still buy HP Printers?
Real Problems Vs. Fake Problems (Score:3)
Real problem:
Mass displacement of white collar workers underway. A lot of careers outside of the white collar world require training and certification, with barriers to licensing (outside of exams) such as minimum number of hours worked before qualifying to sit for an exam. Unemployment hasn't been adjusted to keep up with inflation. Things are not great.
Fake problem:
3D printers could be used to make unapproved machines at home. Better tax people to create a bureaucracy dedicated to keeping people from potentially causing a non-existent public threat. Best case - security theater. Worst case - camel under the nose to start regulating computing devices as well. After all, computers could be used to *gasp* share machine drawings for people to manufacture gun parts without a 3D printer!
Also, g-code is used not just for additive manufacturing, but also for things like routers and mills. If you regulate all software capable of generating g-code for a 3D printer, you're also directly regulating all computing platforms used in those industries. Open source project to generate g-code for a cricut? Could be used as a circumvention device, BANNED. Open source project to build a CNC mill requires a slicer - which now is illegal to run without a government subscription and yearly licensing fee in California. Effectively BANNED.
Great, there goes the in-state manufacturing industry. I guess we'll just have to ship all our work out of state, and those jobs too...
Plea for sanity:
This really feels like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic for the sake of "doing something". Invent a problem that doesn't exist, and then spend money making it go away. Can we please start laying off politicians instead? Or identifying the lobbyists that are pushing for this so we can rightly tar and feather them before this spreads any further?
Re: (Score:2)
BTW, folks from other states might not understand, this kind of insanity is standard in California (introduce invasive laws that make no sense) due to the fact that our legislature is FULL TIME.
Yes, we pay them (and their staffs) for 365 days of work (minus vacation and holidays). And this is what they give us.
[1]https://ballotpedia.org/States... [ballotpedia.org]
"As of 2017, full-time legislatures generally had larger staffs than other legislatures. A few exceptions to this rule were Florida and Texas, whose hybrid legislatur
[1] https://ballotpedia.org/States_with_a_full-time_legislature
This is about tracking firearms (Score:2)
Particularly firearms that can be used in crime. That's the part that the public is freaked out about.
The public isn't on board with creating a society where people get desperate enough to commit random acts of violence and crime using firearms so firearms need to be traceable.
As far as I can tell the only solution to the real problem you're talking about is some form of socialism and about 60% of the public is convinced socialism is theft and or slavery and they're not going to listen to your expla
Re: (Score:3)
They do this instead of dealing with the homeless crisis, drug crisis, housing crisis, etc.
We can't get these jokers to do rent control or block foreign real estate speculation. So they keep trying to put GPS in our electric cars to tax us, or put vague requirements to control theoretically dangerous technology that is simply not a primary problem in this state right now.
Hopefully, solitary idiots (Score:2)
Given that this is a new bill, it may not even make it out of committee. Sadly, there are people who elect idiots who engage in performative legislation. Whether that be anti-abortion legislation that was automatically unconstitutional until recently, or things like this. There are people who don't think. There are even worse attempts in history, like the move to legislatively define PI.
I mean, most of us here recognize that trying to have 3D printers recognize "gun parts" is a bit like trying to have c
Re: (Score:2)
Homelessness is also a bad policy. Really messes with your economy when you have potential labor that isn't able to participate. And have retirees that suddenly get priced out of their homes due to their fixed income. And massive market collusion from landlord services. Frankly, I'm not going to accept some hand waive "economists" say in order to accept that the current underregulated state is the best that things can get.
Not a handwave (Score:2)
Yes, homelessness is a bad thing. How is rent control supposed to eliminate it though? It tends to result in LESS housing available, which is the problem.
As for "handwave", you mistake me considering it mostly off-topic, and thus summarizing, not that I was "handwaving" it. Consider that I did mention that there are "other ways" to help keep rent prices and speculation under control. That makes your "current underregulated state" missing the target, because I already said that the current state sucks -
Re: (Score:1)
1. "The Public" are idiots.
2. How does "being traceable" somehow reduce crime? I seem to remember a study some years ago which found very few crime guns were traced because it either couldn't be done or there was no benefit to doing it.
"Tracing" is just another argument for registration, which is another word for confiscation.
Not a gun nut! (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm no gun nut, nor do I worship at the feet of the second amendment, but this seems downright stupid. I'm betting this Bauer-Kahan person, although well intentioned, is probably not really well informed on this. I'll go do a little research.
I'm back. Just as I thought. A very nice person with good intentions who is also a lawyer. So yeah, no clue. She does seem to have something against plastics in general.
Re: (Score:2)
Road to hell. Check.
Good intentions. Check.
At this point I'd want to know what the estimate is for establishing and funding the CA DOJ apparatus to regulate 3D printers in the state, and the impact it would case on professional and hobbyist markets through:
1. Regulatory compliance. There are a number of pistols that are not sold in California because California has its own set of safety certifications that manufacturers have to get that effectively act as a ban on sales in the state (hint, it's an effec
Re: (Score:2)
Sacramento wants to disarm every Californian. Would be a shame if a tyrant were to show up one of these days and steal elections, end our democratic processes, and overthrow 250 years of Constitutional government.
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Absolutely true, but USA voters rejected Biden and His au' pair Kamala. Guess it's important many states ( government & culture ) encourage gun ownership at all levels.
Re: Not a gun nut! (Score:1)
No no you're clearly mistaken. According to science, only right-coded policies can possibly have downsides and any left-coded policy is self-evidently an unalloyed good.
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Just make 3D printed guns illegal. Put people in prison if they are found with one when they commit a crime. Oh wait. IT'S ALREADY ILLEGAL. We already seize these guns by the thousands.
People have made hundreds of thousands of ghost guns in California before 3D printing was even viable. Both through the legal loop hole for 80% receivers and after that loophole was mostly plugged in California. It's too easy to do with shit you can get at harbor freight and a little practice and patience. And once one guy in
Douches On Junk (Score:3)
Lets forbid any knife, that does not recognize what it is getting stabbed into. Make car manufacturer pay a million for every car made, that can be used for smuggling drugs. Jail a physics teacher that reveals to his students that a falling rock can kill.
Saw this movie recenttly... (Score:3)
[1]The Lives of Others (2006) [imdb.com], about life in the Communist GDR (East Germany). There is a plot where one of the main characters is writes a news story the authorities don't approve of. They have many prominent authors identified by their preferred make/model of manual typewriter, so the fellow is smuggled a compact model from outside the republic so he can write without the government tracing the writing to him.
Unless the California state government plans to interfere with interstate commerce (which I believe is a violation of the constitution), this new measure wont matter at all, and I doubt they want to be affiliated with Cold War regimes.
[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405094/
I guess maybe I am missing something (Score:3)
I have just 3 points.
I know I am getting old, but it seems like just last week there were no commercial 3D printers, they were all home built. Then the hobby reached critical mass, and now there is a big market with lots of commercial models, and people making a living running giant print farms. But it was still very recently that most printers were not commercial. All that knowledge has not had time to go away, the firmware running these printers is still actively developed and freely available. So my first point is you don't need to buy a printer to own one.
My second point is that machine components in isolation are very seldom indicative of the application of the whole assembly. For some sort of AI agent to actually identify the real gun parts among the other non gun machine components would require the AI agent to have access to all the components printed on all the printers owned by an entity. Basically it would require a massive database of everything you ever printed. Logistically difficult and legally contentious, but also there are people and companies prototyping devices which are company secrets on 3D printers. They are not going to accept printers that give all their development designs to the government, and wow, talk about an industrial espionage target.
And finally this whole discussion feels very much like a straw man to me. 3D printed guns just are not that good. You still have to have metal components to make a gun. There is not a plastic printable on your general purpose 3D printer that can come close to making a chamber strong enough to hold the pressure of even wimpy rounds. .22lr has a SAAMI standard maximum chamber pressure of 24,000
PSI. It is also pretty warm. Sure, I am sure you can print a chamber that will fire a round, but I would not shoot it, because you may have a better than 50% chance of the bullet going out the correct direction, but your chances are no where near high enough for me to put myself in harms way.
So yeah, your theoretical fanatic assassin might be willing to use a plastic gun capable of firing a single round in its working life, but to make a functional reusable gun is going to require metal barrels, chambers, and bolts. So the 3D printed gun as a real danger to society is a myth.
Now a slam fire shotgun made with plumbing pipe with a nail welded in for a firing pin, those are actually functional and not hard to construct with a modicum of mechanical knowledge and tools. Still not safe, but more reliable than anything 100% plastic.
Re: (Score:2)
I can't figure out if they're being dumb or if there's something else in play because, yes, a 3d printer is one of the worst ways to make a gun. I imagine you could take a trip to Harbor Freight and get the tools you'd need to mill a real one for the cost of PC or two.
Read carefully: proposed != passed (Score:2)
The barrier to proposing legislation is pretty trivial, once elected. Passing it into law will encounter the common-sense hurdles everyone is chirping about. This is a big nothingburger. 3D printed guns are barely an issue and this is an assinine idea overall with a million practical issues with the implementation, let alone the intent. It will never pass.
This is akin to your drunk buddy telling you he's going to quit his job and start a new business...and learn French...and run a marathon...and los
Fine (Score:3)
I'll just buy my printers from Arizona.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
California is too big of a market. Everyone will just conform to the California standard.
And besides sooner or later somebody is going to use one of those ghost guns in a murder and it's going to get around and make the press and the public is going to demand action.
People freak out if you threaten to take their guns away. But they also freak out if the cops can't catch murderers easily. And easily producible untraceable guns that don't require a machine shop or something the public isn't going to
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I get all my guns and ammo from Arizona and they are yet to comply with the "too big state".
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Your guns and ammo are made in machine shops and manufacturing plants heavily heavily heavily regulated.
Try walking into a random machine shop and ask them to make you a receiver and let me know how that turns out for you.
Re: (Score:1)
Imagine going back in time and telling the founders that people would have to get permission from the government to make a gun.
Back in the modern world, there's nothing illegal in the US in making guns for personal use and many people do. This law is both idiotic and blatantly unconstitutional.
Re: (Score:2)
They would have been fine with it. The second amendment guarantees states the right to form armed militias (or to put it in modern terms, armed police forces). It wasn't intended to give every individual the right to own guns for their own private use. That's a modern reinterpretation.
> there's nothing illegal in the US in making guns for personal use
That's just completely false. Gun manufacturing is a highly regulated industry.
Re: (Score:2)
> The second amendment guarantees states the right to form armed militias
Exactly right. But they have to be armed when they are formed. The Constitution reserves the right to arm militias to the US Congress (typically the states National Guards). If the state wants an armed militia of any other type (police force) the only way they can be armed is as citizens.
Re: (Score:2)
Generally it is not illegal for you to rent time in a machine shop (in the United States) to produce a receiver (depending on various state laws.)
It is also generally not illegal in the United States (again, depending on various state laws) to run your own small scale ammunition press at home to make your own ammo. It is in fact, the only way for certain out-of production calibers to be produced these days, unless you want to commission a custom run. There are also people who design and produce their own
Re: Fine (Score:2)
Gosh, it's not like I can't buy a stolen gun to us in my criminal acts. They are every bit as untraceable as a 3d printed gun.
Re: (Score:2)
Or download your OctaPrint firmware outside of the US. Or delete any silly reporting or AI nonsense that someone tries to add to the firmware you want to use.