House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda

In the near future, I will be introducing legislation that will prohibit the building of guns that cannot be detected by x-ray or metallic scanners. The Federal Undetectable Firearms Act currently prohibits the building of such firearms; however, the law expires at the end of this year.

Paul Saffo, a technology forecaster professor at Stanford University’s engineering school, was quoted in an Associated Press article stating that the technology now exists for a highly motivated group to make a plastic gun on a 3-D printer that could avoid airport scanners. This new printing technology was developed for the automobile, aerospace, and other industries to create product prototypes from the same hard plastics used in toys like Legos. However, a group of students at the University of Texas is claiming to have begun to develop plastic parts of firearms.

Congressman Steven Israel, an advocate for renewing the federal ban, stated, “What’s chilling is that last month a group of kids used a 3-D printer to actually manufacture key parts of the AR-15 and fire six bullets. When the act was last renewed in 2003, a gun made by a 3-D printer was like Star Trek episode, but now we know it’s real.”

I would welcome your support advancing this legislation.