Possessing a 3D printed gun in Canada could net you 10 years in prison. As the Canadian Press reports, Public Safety Canada has been closely watching the story unfold in the United States and wants to remind Canadians that gun laws in their own country are much more severe than in the States.
But gun-rights advocate Nicolas Johnson, editor of TheGunBlog, says Public Safety is just exercising its conditioned response whenever firearms are discussed.
“3D printing takes us to that eternal tradeoff between liberty and safety, and I hope policymakers choose liberty every time,” Johnson told The Daily Caller Tuesday.
“The 3D printing debate mirrors the gun debate because it makes us distinguish between the technology and the user. A lot of policymakers confuse the technology with the user, and they try to restrict good technology in the hope it will restrict bad users. But restrictions only work on good users who obey the law, not on outlaws who ignore it,” he said.
“It is illegal to manufacture or possess a firearm without the appropriate license and applicable registration certificate,” Public Safety Canada spokesman Jean-Philippe Levert told Global News.
As of last Wednesday, Americans could legally print firearms for their own use, but owning an unregistered gun of any sort remains illegal in Canada.
“Government officials are closely monitoring developments related to 3D-printed firearms, which do not change the law,” Levert told Global.
Defense Distributed first introduced their blueprints for 3D-printed guns five years ago and started a legal war with the U.S. State Department that quickly demanded the company remove the online material. The government finally settled with the company in June.
Eight pro-gun control states are angry about the settlement and are mounting a legal challenge.