“What’s the rational basis for telling people who are not prohibited that they cannot learn how to do stuff?”

Via the Washington Post: 

Though a federal judge has temporarily blocked the dissemination of blueprints showing how to make guns using 3-D printers, it remains legal for people to make their own firearms at home without a license — a relatively rare practice but one that the government can’t fully monitor.

Federal law allows people who are not prohibited from owning firearms to manufacture them for personal use. Certain types of guns, including those with short barrels, require a tax payment and approval from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. A license is required to make guns for sale or distribution...

“People like to learn. I think a lot of people like to do things themselves. People like to do home projects and change stuff around on their house; why wouldn’t they want to do the same thing with their vehicles or their firearms?” said Brandon Combs, president of the Firearms Policy Coalition. Combs’s organization created a website that shows instructions for how to build various guns, including an AR-15 assault-style rifle. The group that created the 3-D blueprint released it online before this week’s court order, and its specs remain on the website created by the Firearms Policy Coalition.

Combs said the allure of making guns at home becomes stronger when stricter gun laws are enacted.

“The more gun control gets passed, the more popularity there’s been for these types of home-built firearms and do-it-yourself projects,” he said. “What’s the rational basis for telling people who are not prohibited that they cannot learn how to do stuff?”

Read more here.