The U.S. House of Representatives passed a collection of gun control policies packaged as the Protecting Our Kids Act on Wednesday. The bill includes a ban on high-capacity magazines and increases the age requirement for purchasing semi-automatic rifles to 21, but these are not the most concerning sections of the legislation. The act also contains a ban on ghost guns that opens the door for further government involvement in the dissemination of information.
“A firearm, including a frame or receiver, that lacks a unique serial number engraved or cast on the frame or receiver by a licensed manufacturer or importer in accordance with this chapter” is defined as a “ghost gun” in the bill.
3D-printed weapons rely on digital files that create a standard design for weapons in order to be distributed across the internet. Weapons created with these designs do not have unique serial numbers and would fall under the definition of a “ghost gun.”
The legislation’s attack on ghost guns targets the materials used to produce these weapons. If a component to a weapon is not “wholly made of detectable material” or is not visible “if subjected to inspection by the types of detection devices commonly used at airports for security screening,” the entire weapon is considered an “undetectable firearm” and is covered by the proposal.
Because the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives lacks the ability to track and detect ghost guns consistently, any enforcement of this legislation will come not from physical inspection but in the form of digital censorship. Gun control activists may dismiss these concerns, but the previous administration supported penalizing the sharing of 3D-printed gun files on the internet.
“I am looking into 3-D Plastic Guns being sold to the public,” former President Donald Trump tweeted in 2018. “Already spoke to NRA, doesn’t seem to make much sense!” Thankfully, Trump decided to reverse his position thanks to Defense Distributed, an organization that publishes printable gun files online.
The files were open-source at the time of Trump’s tweet. In order to preserve the availability of these files, Defense Distributed required payment from customers seeking to download the blueprints. Following this agreement, the Trump administration ordered the State Department to remove the guns from the department’s Munitions List, allowing these blueprints to be posted online without prior approval.
The usual suspects tried to undo the Trump administration’s decision. Led by California, 22 states and the District of Columbia sought an injunction that would halt the implementation of the new regulation by arguing it created a risk for terrorism on U.S. soil. An argument tried and tested since 9/11 and the PATRIOT Act, a federal judge fulfilled the demands of the lawsuit. Luckily, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the injunction and allowed the Trump administration’s decision to go through.
President Joe Biden initiated a rule change that requires 3D-printed guns to follow the same regulatory procedure as other guns, such as engraving serial numbers and conducting background checks. Yet the ATF does not have the ability to track and detect ghost guns consistently. Because enforcement of these laws is increasingly difficult after 3D-printed guns are created, liberal state attorneys general have made it clear what their preferred mode of enforcement is for ghost guns: digital censorship.
The Protecting Our Kids Act will not pass thanks to Republicans in the Senate, but people should not ignore what congressional Democrats have told the nation. If voters choose the Democratic Party, President Joe Biden’s assault on ghost guns will be codified into law, and the internet will become increasingly regulated by the security state.
James Sweet is a summer 2022 Washington Examiner fellow.
