Has anyone heard of “3D GUN’T” software that’s apparently being put into new 3d printers? It can apparently block prints based off the shape or whatever to prevent the printing of gun parts, and keeps tabs on who printed exactly what. It’s basically DRM for 3d printers. Also laws in certain states demanding printers be legally required to start blocking gun parts. It may be the beginning of something worse as it adds the infrastructure needed to further block “bad shapes” down the road.
If I understand correctly, this affects 3d printers that can read STL. What if someone, hypothetically, uses an open source slicer, like Orca, and print from gcode?
IIRC that’s only potentially going to be a law in Washington state (for now). It’s not really enforceable. It’s a law made by people who don’t know what they’re talking about. My printers and my slicers are blocked from communicating outside my local network. Once shape-blocking firmware gets pushed people will just revert back to the previous firmware version.
Whatever people in power try to stir up about this, it’s literally impossible to legislate and block shapes from being 3D-printed. Any attempts to do so are a fool’s errand, and/or just being used to justify misguided (and doomed) attempts to lock down 3DP technology for other reasons (read DRM/copyright forces in big business.) Blocking parts that might be for a gun from being printed simply cannot be done.
Has anyone heard of “3D GUN’T” software that’s apparently being put into new 3d printers? It can apparently block prints based off the shape or whatever to prevent the printing of gun parts, and keeps tabs on who printed exactly what. It’s basically DRM for 3d printers. Also laws in certain states demanding printers be legally required to start blocking gun parts. It may be the beginning of something worse as it adds the infrastructure needed to further block “bad shapes” down the road.
https://3dprint.com/314218/daring-am-software-advances-aim-to-curb-illegal-3d-printing-of-firearms/ https://printandgo.tech/blog/3d-gunt-solution-to-prevent-3d-printed-ghost-guns
If I understand correctly, this affects 3d printers that can read STL. What if someone, hypothetically, uses an open source slicer, like Orca, and print from gcode?
Yeah, these laws are incredibly invasive, and potentially crippling to smaller manufacturing operations.
“Yeah? And your point is?”. ~ Billionaires
Wow! No sovereign citizen is advocating for this!
IIRC that’s only potentially going to be a law in Washington state (for now). It’s not really enforceable. It’s a law made by people who don’t know what they’re talking about. My printers and my slicers are blocked from communicating outside my local network. Once shape-blocking firmware gets pushed people will just revert back to the previous firmware version.
Whatever people in power try to stir up about this, it’s literally impossible to legislate and block shapes from being 3D-printed. Any attempts to do so are a fool’s errand, and/or just being used to justify misguided (and doomed) attempts to lock down 3DP technology for other reasons (read DRM/copyright forces in big business.) Blocking parts that might be for a gun from being printed simply cannot be done.
https://blog.adafruit.com/2026/02/04/what-a-load-of-filament-the-case-against-3d-printer-gun-detection/
https://michaelweinberg.org/blog/2026/02/04/3d-printer-gun-screen/