Trump Considering Sales of Guns Made by 3D Printers

 

President Donald Trump¹ says he is studying whether guns made by a three-dimensional (3-D) printer should be sold in the United States.

Trump wrote on Twitter the idea “doesn’t seem to make much sense!” He added that he spoke² to the National Rifle Association (NRA) about the issue.

The NRA is the largest American organization representing the interests of gun owners.

Trump’s comments come as eight states and the District of Columbia are taking legal action against his administration for permitting the release of the gun-printing plans. They say anyone following those step-by-step directions could use 3-D printer technology to create a gun out of plastic.

State attorneys general are the state officials who can bring cases against the federal government.

Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson is leading the case against the Trump administration. He said the gun-printing plans are a danger to the public.

“These downloadable guns are unregistered and very difficult to detect, even with metal detectors³, and will be available to anyone regardless of age, mental health or criminal history,” he said.

The eight states and the District of Columbia argue that permitting people to make their own guns violates state controls over weapons.

Officials say that 1,000 people have already downloaded the directions for plastic guns.

Plans for printing a gun available to the public

A Texas company created the designs. They enable anyone with a 3-D printer to make the parts of a plastic gun that would cost just a few hundred dollars.

The same directions are also at the center of legal action over whether they can be made available to the public.

The State Department had ordered a gun rights activist⁴ to stop providing the directions. State Department officials said the plans violated U.S. export laws.

The activist, Cody Wilson, argued that the ban violated his rights under the U.S. constitution. In June, the Trump administration changed its position to permit publication of some instructions.

Gun experts say plastic guns may not work without some metal parts and that they could blow up in the hands of users. They add that 3-D printing technology can be very costly⁵.

I’m Jonathan Evans.

Words in This Story

three dimensional –adj. having length, width and height

printer – n. a device for making copies of a photograph or other object

detect – v. to discover the presence of something

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

3 detectors   

探测器( detector的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The report advocated that all buildings be fitted with smoke detectors. 报告主张所有的建筑物都应安装烟火探测器。
• This is heady wine for experimenters using these neutrino detectors. 对于使用中微子探测器的实验工作者，这是令人兴奋的美酒。 来自英汉非文学 - 科技

4 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

5 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。