As Trump Tweets About Downloadable Guns, His Administration Retains Complete Authority to Fix This Public Safety Disaster

This morning, President Donald Trump tweeted that he is “looking into” the issue of downloadable guns and that while he’s consulting with the NRA, publication of blueprints for 3D printable guns “doesn’t seem to make much sense.”

On Friday, Trump’s own State Department made a temporary modification to current regulations that allowed a single company to publish blueprints for downloadable, untraceable guns online. These blueprints enable anyone – including convicted felons, domestic abusers and terrorists – to download blueprints they can use to print guns at home.

“The Trump Administration can take action today to keep these deadly blueprints from further undermining American gun laws,” said Nick Suplina, Managing Director for Law and Policy at Everytown for Gun Safety. “To protect the public from this senseless situation, the president should direct the State Department to block any further publishing of the designs for downloadable, untraceable guns.”

Additionally, the State Department has proposed a rule that, in part, would permanently change the U.S. Munitions List and allow any company to publish similar blueprints – not just the one company it issued a special exception for over the weekend. The State Department has the power – and responsibility – to immediately rescind the special exception that currently allows a private company to publish these blueprints and change the proposed rule to allow for the continued regulation of these dangerous blueprints.

More information about the dangers of downloadable guns is available here. If you have any questions as you cover this, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

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