Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson is leading a coalition of 21 states, including Oregon, Colorado, Virginia, Maryland, Connecticut and Washington, D.C., in a federal lawsuit against the Trump Administration over newly announced arms export rules. The lawsuit, filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, argues the new rules fail to meaningfully regulate 3D-printed guns.

The lawsuit is the most recent in a long string of legal twists and turns over the issue.

The Trump Administration鈥檚 new rules shift oversight for some commercial arms export rules from the U.S. State Department to the Department of Commerce. In the new rules, the Department of Commerce maintains that plans for 3D-printed guns posted online would still require an export license, but said plans distributed by mail or in person would not.

鈥淭he loopholes blow a hole through the so-called regulations,鈥� said Attorney General Ferguson. 鈥淭hey say, 鈥楬ey, you can鈥檛 post the file on the internet, but you can post a non readable file and with free software you can now read that file and post them.鈥�

Ferguson said it鈥檚 also still legal to email schematics.

3D-printed guns don鈥檛 have serial numbers, are untraceable, and are impossible to detect with metal detectors. Easy access to the blueprints could make firearms available to anyone 鈥� including people prohibited from owning them.

the U.S. State Department ordered Defense Distributed, an Austin, Texas-based company that develops digital firearms schematics, to remove a 3D-printed pistol schematic from its website, arguing the online plans amount to a weapons export and pose a serious threat to national security.

In response, Defense Distributed filed a federal lawsuit but after the Trump Administration agreed to allow the plans to be published. Then, in November 2019, a federal judge in Seattle said the administration鈥檚 policy reversal was 鈥渁rbitrary, capricious and unlawful.鈥�

In his ruling, Judge Robert Lasnik wrote that the government failed to address their previous claim that 3D-printed firearms pose a threat to world peace and the national security interests of the United States.

鈥淕iven the agency鈥檚 prior position regarding the need to regulate 3D-printed firearms and the CAD files used to manufacture them, it must do more than simply announce a contrary position,鈥� Judge Lasnik wrote.

Attorney General Ferguson said the Administration has failed to address Judge Lasnik鈥檚 original concerns and that the security issues persist.

鈥淭he implications are profound and that鈥檚 not just me talking,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat is literally national security with the federal government for years. 3D-printed guns, if available, present a threat to the national security of this country.鈥�

According to the Washington Attorney General鈥檚 office, the states participating in the lawsuit are Washington, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, and the District of Columbia.

The arms export rules go into effect March 9.

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