Second Amendment advocates who have been fighting, for nearly a decade, for their right under the First Amendment to post online various instructions for 3-D computer printing a single-shot gun are claiming victory in ruling from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
That decision reverses a maneuver by the attorney general from New Jersey to separate out his arguments in the case from other attorneys general and move that portion of the case to New Jersey.
The case was filed in Texas, and the appeals court ruled that it must all be returned there and consolidated.
The fight involves instructions to computer print a gun, but it uniquely revolves around the First Amendment because of the government's suppression of speech in the fight.
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The case was brought by the Second Amendment Foundation and Defense Distributed, which had posted online the instructions.
The organizations explained a district court order had wrongly severed the case against the New Jersey AG from a lawsuit filed by the plaintiffs.
"It's a huge victory for us," said SAF founder Alan M. Gottlieb, "because New Jersey wanted to be severed from our legal action in their effort to prevent publication of the information by Defense Distributed, thus violating the company’s and SAF’s First Amendment rights to promote the exercise of Second Amendment rights."
The war erupted when anti-gun-rights attorneys general, led by Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson at the time, filed suit in the Western District of Washington to enjoin the State Department from authorizing the release of Defense Distributed’s files on the internet.