This year the state of New York had the dubious honor of being the first to pass a controversial provision to mandate all 3D printers come with surveillance and censorship. That means not only is there a ticking clock to protect every artist, researcher, engineer, and hobbyist in the state, but there is a real risk of other states thoughtlessly following suit—prior to the New York rules even taking effect. Now that the bill has passed and been signed by Governor Hochul, let’s look at two important ways the final legislation changed since we last wrote about it, and why states like California shouldn’t make the same mistake.
I’m going to go ahead and point out that this was literally the original intent of the NFA: It was implicitly to disarm black folks, with the expectation that rich white people would be able to afford to remain armed. It was also meant to apply to all concealable firearms in general, i.e. pistols, which is why there is so much malarkey in there around short barrelled rifles and shotguns and so forth.