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California’s New Bill Requires DOJ-Approved 3D Printers That Report on Themselves
(blog.adafruit.com)
firearm blocking technology.
grep -r "gun"
this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2026
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It seems like that should be invalidated as a law? Like it would be if the feds pre-empted it.
But the courts have previously ruled that you can't illegalize dual use devices that have legitimate legal uses and possible illegal ones, as they tried to do with CD burners back in the day for the record companies, may they burn in hell.
Not sure that would apply?
How does this "firearm blocking technology" even work? How does a 3d printer id whatever code the slicer sends it as a gun part?
They upload the following meme to everyone's printer and call it a day:
The only possible way I can think of to make this work is require the firmware to only be able to print G-code files that have a cryptographic signature from some central slicing authority that users submit models to, which then analyzes the STL file with AI or some shit for approval. The only technology that can remotely go "is this STL file a piece of a gun?" is machine learning. You're outright not going to get that done on the 3D printer locally; you'd have to increase the processing power of a 3D printer control board from "microcontroller" to "GPU" entirely for this dumbass tech. Maybe you'd run that on the user's PC but PCs aren't for sale to the public anymore so it will be done in the cloud.
It occurs to me that these initiatives are all popping up on the West coast where Microsoft, Google and OpenAI are based. The other day the CEO of Microsoft came out and said "We're going to have to figure out something for our bullshit tech to actually do before the unwashed masses riot." and what do you know, a couple states that are home to large AI firms start proposing legislation that can practically only be answered by AI out of the blue.
Yeah it seems like this is an excuse to implement complete surveillance of these machines under the guise of preventing guns, just like child abuse is used to justify age checks and chatcontrol to id everyone with id and biometrics and connect them to everything they say or do, in person and online, and make secret social scores, Palantir making those scores at that, the one that wants to use drones to spray people he doesn't like, like his critics, with fentanyl, by his own words.
Every addition of spying by the government is accompanied by giving more spying power, and commercial value, to tech companies as well. They are co conspirators.
Banning guns is so easy. But dealing with the systemic problems that lead people to guns who definitely should t have them seems impossible to grasp.
Sooooo you want to stop gun violence in the US so your first instinct is to fuck over 3D printers because gun violence is okay as long as the guns are bought from the normal vendors?
This paw isn't about lowering gun violence, this is something pushed to protect the gun manufacturers
The 3D printing lobby isn't as big as the NRA.
I don't think it has anything to do with gun manufacturers, or gun violence. Someone who wants to shoot something is going to find a way.
I'm betting it's pressure from AI companies. "We need to find a use for this product soon or we'll lose social permission" or whatever Mr. Microsoft said the other day. And suddenly a couple of states that have big AI companies in them propose legislation that could only be answered by large amounts of machine learning power.
This isn't in reaction to some shooting with a 3D printed gun, is it? I'd have heard about that, the America Bad crowd here on Lemmy wouldn't have passed up a chance to blast that from the rooftops if it had happened. School shootings have faded into the background; that's not "newsworthy" anymore because it's become normal. A shooting with a 3D printed gun would have made headlines, and it hasn't. Until we all got used to it and moved our attention elsewhere, there would be a shooting, the 24 hour tabloids would broadcast a liberal arts major's understanding of the firearms used, the bleeding heart left would call for a ban on those specific kinds of guns, the childrape right would call them retards for getting the technical details extremely wrong, a governor 3 states away would sign a ban on bayonet lugs and collapsible stocks on rifles, in time for someone to shoot up an army base with a pistol. If a 3D printed gun shooting had happened, you could get another round of that cycle going.
That's not what happened though. So what did?
They know they can't take the gun industry head on, so they chip at the margins. They figure hobbyists aren't numerous enough to fight back, while the real gun owners shrug.
I honestly wonder if this might be held unconstitutional if challenged.
Can have the military complex lose money.
Someone more eloquent than I am needs to craft a compelling argument that this violates the 2nd amendment.
this violates the 2nd amendment
It also violates the first and fourth. And it does nothing about gun violence.
It's also impossible to actually implement and is no more than one more privacy violation to add to the pile.
Any proper printer should work offline.
Any normal printer doesn't have nearly enough processing power to run analysis on bgcode/instruction files (it's nor needed for normal operation).
Good luck idiot lawmakers
This is what I'm talking about. We are stating to get to a cojent argument that I can call my representatives with and bitch them out, politely.
Am a Californian by choice.
This is going to make life hard for hobbyists not criminals.
Silly woman who proposed that bill, if passed the law will only create a black market for 3D printers.
And largely unenforceable. Like, it can only really block the sale of prebuilt, proprietary crap like Bamboo, but most of these things are built out of common parts that are used for a verity of applications and there are countless completely open source printers you can just built from sourced parts that this literally cannot apply to.
Even for most of the prebuilt or kits you get you put open source firmware on it. They can boot lock the board that comes with it, technically, but the board is easy enough to replace on most printers and it's a standard micro controller and/or raspberry pi nowadays.
Half the time people who get those kits end up replacing various components to customize for their use case. I have a Sovol SV08 that I put stock Klipper on and want to do the multi-print-head mod someday. I've even considered replacing the main board with a more powerful one so I can run higher microsteps without overloading the processor.
The abject retardation spirals off infinitely in all directions like the blades of the time knife. I mean, just out of my own twisted head:
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they're talking about making it illegal to traffic 3D printers that don't have a "certified gun detection algorithm." Okay, what part of the 3D printer are you going to control? Hot ends? Control boards? 3D printers don't have lower receivers. If I were to disassemble my Prusa MK4S back into the ~1000 weird shaped hunks of plastic, metal plates and sticks, wires, circuit boards, nuts and bolts it came in as a kit, and then drive through California, which exact piece am I going to be arrested for carrying?
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I can't wait until someone Man With The Golden Gun's one of thes "certified algorithms", prints stuff that looks like cabinet hooks, musical instruments, a walkie-talkie case, a toy dinosaur, which clip together in a certain way to make a functioning weapon. I've never 3D printed a gun before, this might just get me into it.
I had 3 printers (long story), but sold 2 and kept one, an Ender 5 plus. Of the original printer, there is the frame, a couple motors, the electronics case, and little more. Its now an Endorphin, direct drive sherpa mini, rails, Hybrid coreXY, Octopus Max board, Pi with Klipper... Anyone can take measurements, and make themselves one of these, or a Voron, or a VZbot, or... Good luck, California.
Wow...they got us, no way we can print an STL from a USB stick.
They are banning USB sticks next
Imagine the processing power needed to analyse bgcode for gun or gun part-like shapes!
Not to mention it's easier to make a pipe gun than to learn 3d printing
This is so fucking dumb. Anyone can Smith a gun at any hardware store.
What the "ban" is trying to achieve. Is prevention of firearms undetectable by metal detectors.
Though I'm not sure why that is important seeing as the bullet (as a whole) consists of lead, copper, and brass. But I suppose it can be argued it's a lot easier to sneak through a bullet than a firearm.
Fuuuq gotta buy a printer before this shit
Just avoid Bambu. Everything you do goes through their servers.
Bauer-Kahan is a Democrat, if you wonder.
If the bill is passed, I'd be surprised if Newsom didn't sign it.
What kind. Because I'm well aware of how bad democrats can be even if they aren't as bad as the literal fascists.
At best this is a grossly uninformed position. At worst she is pushing this to add it to the pile of privacy violations or because a system like this, if it could actually work, would have an end goal to block people printing copyrighted objects.
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