We Can Still Stop California’s 3D Printer Surveillance Scheme
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/06/we-can-still-stop-californias-3d-printer-surveillance-scheme
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/06/we-can-still-stop-californias-3d-printer-surveillance-scheme
57 Comments
ShellMonkey@piefed.socdojo.com · 69 pts · 38d
You can buy whole kits to build your own, the capacity to control what is made with the is about as much as if you tried to ban someone with a table saw from building a birdhouse.
TIEPilot@lemmy.world · 41 pts · 38d
Thats a perfectly succinct analogy.
lung@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 38d
Pretty sure you could make a gun too, which is the point of this 3D printer thing
And like what about other CNC machines?
I like that California is on the frontier of many tech laws, but this and the age thing are particularly dumb lately
TIEPilot@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 38d
I made an AR15 with a hobby drill press from Lowes at work. Give me a hunk of metal, a micrometer and a file and I can make you a gun.
Or worse.
PattyMcB@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 38d
I'm pretty sure that's already illegal in CA
TIEPilot@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 37d
I think at this point it easier to list what isn't illegal in California.
tomiant@piefed.social · 0 pts · 36d
Are the laws sound and moral? That's the only important metric, it doesn't matter how many laws you have. It's not like you go, oh shit, we have to keep it under a hundred thousand so now we can't make new laws around AI data centers because that's just too many!
TIEPilot@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 36d
lol you again, who decides whats "moral"?
And WTF are you bringing data centers into a post about 3D printing and California's draconian laws?
grue@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 38d
Neat, I would've assumed you'd need a mill or a lathe, not just a drill press. Kinda want to know how to do it myself, since I own the former but not either of the latter.
dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 38d
The upper reciever is the load bearing part on an Armalite, but it's also not the regulated part. The lower receiver is, and all you need for that is a box that holds the trigger components in vaguely the right place, a hole that lines up the magazine, a hole to stick the buffer tube into at the back, and some way to nail the upper receiver to it.
You could carve an AR lower out of wood if you were dedicated enough.
grue@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 38d
Guess I ought to go find a set of machining schematics.
TIEPilot@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 37d
If you're near me I'll loan you the gig, the end mills,and support to make an AR lower in about 2 hours.
masterspace@lemmy.ca · -9 pts · 37d
TIEPilot@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 37d
It won't be accurate or be a long baller w/o a lathe to make a rifled barrel. Not that you couldn't mke a barrel with hand tools, it just would be very difficult.
And like others have said, only the lower receiver is the controlled item. You goto Brownels and can buy 98% of an AR w/o a background check.
PancakesCantKillMe@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 38d
Shovel AK is a thing too. There are stencils out there for it.
TIEPilot@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 38d
Gah how can I forget about the shovel AK????
tomiant@piefed.social · 0 pts · 36d
And that is illegal, as it should be. The efficacy of a law has nothing to do with whether it's moral.
It's like saying "we don't have the manpower to police murder effectively, so we are gonna legalize murder". It's a fundamental misunderstanding of what the law is fucking for.
TIEPilot@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 36d
No its not illegal:
https://www.atf.gov/firearms/privately-made-firearms
You can't make a machine gun or other items on the NFA list though.
A homemade AR15 is completely legal to be made at the federal level.
The rest of your comment is off base.
masterspace@lemmy.ca · -15 pts · 37d
TIEPilot@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 37d
lol ok...
mctoasterson@reddthat.com · 11 pts · 38d
Nobody tell California about a nail combined with certain diameters of pipe, because guess what, those can become guns too.
TIEPilot@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 38d
zip guns, lets bring in slam fired shotguns.
Never doubt the ingenuity of man killing other men.
tomiant@piefed.social · 0 pts · 36d
Thank god we have laws prohibiting and enforcing it then.
TIEPilot@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 36d
No we don't, check the ppost with this link
https://www.atf.gov/firearms/privately-made-firearms
I can make guns all day long and you can't do anything about it.
tomiant@piefed.social · 1 pts · 36d
And that is illegal and you'll rightly spend a lot of time in jail for doing that, shit you can go to prison for suggesting it.
masterspace@lemmy.ca · -13 pts · 37d
AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 37d
Pipe bombs are not exactly uncommon. Most of those are exactly that. Pipe and nails, packed with homemade explosives.
PattyMcB@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 38d
If I'm not mistaken, this DOES cover ALL manufacturing devices, and if it doesn't, it will in the future
masterspace@lemmy.ca · -10 pts · 37d
monsieur_hackerman@programming.dev · 10 pts · 37d
This isn't gun control though. It's surveillance.
Oneiros@eviltoast.org · 2 pts · 38d
Yeah I’ve lived in CA for about 10 years now and have loved it, but the new laws they are passing are making it extremely likely that I’ll be moving soon. Especially with tje fact that we are either getting either Becerra who’s in Big AI and Big Oils pocket.
turbowafflz@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 38d
Or just go to a bordering state, buy one, and come back
PattyMcB@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 38d
Printer manufacturers won't make state-specific versions of printers. This is going to screw all of us.
kent_eh@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 36d
Likely not even country specific ones.
This is the USA screwing the world (again)
tomiant@piefed.social · 1 pts · 36d
Oh nothing to worry about then? Fuck you, we need to fight back against every infringement of our rights, it has nothing to do with how effective the law will be but that the law is WRONG.
Jesus christ when will we stop doing this?
masterspace@lemmy.ca · 0 pts · 37d
DanceMomsSavedMe@lemmy.zip · 6 pts · 37d
Actually ammo reloaded at home shoots better than factory ammo this is a known occurance. And guns put together with kits usually shoot better and have less problems than mass produced factory ones.
Guns aren't really that difficult to make. Hell that Japanese guy shot Shinto Abe with a gun he made himself although bit of a different thing because it used a battery to ignite the gunpowder but still the same idea.
Making guns isn't hard to do.
3d printed ones are a joke though. You can only use them a few times before they become even more dangerous and unpredictable. Anyone who wanted to use an actual firearm would never use a 3d printed gun.
Maybe one of those 200K metal 3d printers or whatever. But at that point it would be easier to machine the parts yourself out of metal. It really isn't as difficult as you seem to think it is to do that.
If they wanted gun control (which California already has a bit more of than other States) then they could pass a law doing that. This is 100% a surveillance law.
AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 37d
Tell me you know nothing about metalworking and firearms, without telling me you know nothing about metalworking and firearms.
masterspace@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 36d
apftwb@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 37d
You cannot put DRM in stepper motors. This law is dumb.
TrippinMallard@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 37d
Hey now, don't give them any ideas... Next thing you know all stepper motors will require daily inspection before use by a robocop placed in every home.
Kolanaki@pawb.social · 2 pts · 35d
Can't stop those 3D printer pens, either. Someone could one day be literal when they say they are gonna draw a weapon.
reluctant_squidd@lemmy.ca · 15 pts · 38d
Everyone unplug from the internet?
TIEPilot@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 38d
Bingo, back to the SneakerNet.
sleet01@lemmy.ca · 8 pts · 38d
blows dust off classic Fellowes floppy disk caddy
"Gimme some sugar, baby!"
TIEPilot@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 38d
Oh reminds of this:
https://youtu.be/MZWWI3ryw2o
cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de · 5 pts · 38d
You can still connect it to your LAN without giving it internet access.
TIEPilot@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 38d
Or I don't and I have no worries as I trust NOTHING.
PancakesCantKillMe@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 38d
I know that a Samsung teevee disconnected from the internet will try and use another appliances internet connection if it can. Gotta imagine this is possible in other devices, too.
ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 38d
Last year I started maintaining a MAC address whitelist on the router: if I haven't added it, it doesn't get in or go out. No way in hell I'm putting any household appliance on the allowed list. While an appliance could technically still try to access via an allowed device, they're all phones and tablets and computers with slightly more robust security than the trust me bro levels of an IoT appliance.
Zoot@reddthat.com · 2 pts · 37d
Just gotta hope your neighbors don't connect their devices, and that your own can't reach the neighbors.
dust_accelerator@discuss.tchncs.de · 2 pts · 37d
Can you share more info on this? I'm interested in the technical aspect how this is done, specifically which devices it uses?
For instance, say, a smart speaker, may have Bluetooth and WiFi, but I'm not sure any halfway comprehensive network stack I'd even implemented that could be used as a proxy, let alone autonomously remotely reconfigured to do so.
PancakesCantKillMe@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 37d
If memory serves correctly it was another Samsung device it was leveraging which makes more sense. There were other occasions where it had once been attached to WiFi for a firmware update, disconnected and told to forget the network, but attached again to it at least twice. Took the steps to forget the network again and then powered off completely. Subsequent checks show no further connections so far.
Buddahriffic@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 37d
I've also heard of devices that scan for open networks in the area to use. It's also possible for them to come with a sim card and use a discounted cell collection, though not sure if any TVs are actually doing that. Could even be a virtual SIM so there's no card to find and potentially just remove/destroy.
TIEPilot@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 38d
Its a felony, we need RF jammers.
/RF engineer.
masterspace@lemmy.ca · 15 pts · 37d
sj_zero@lotide.fbxl.net · 18 pts · 37d
If this was about guns, they would ban hardware stores. It's just about controlling everything so they can parcel it back out to friends.
masterspace@lemmy.ca · -1 pts · 37d
architect@thelemmy.club · 0 pts · 36d
Love how you’re using the same words the fascists use against leftist Americans as a whole while accusing a non American of being American. Y'all never change.
sj_zero@lotide.fbxl.net · 0 pts · 36d
I mean... I'm not American...
0xd34d@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 37d
America, fuck yeah!
I mean, fuck America!
Lasherz12@lemmy.world · -4 pts · 38d
I don't really get it other than changing its convenience and efficiency. Superglue and wall loops make stronger parts of multiple pieces than priting it all in one.
Maybe poor wording? I just mean their task is enormous to filter these parts in a way that actually targets them and nothing else and splitting pieces will invariably be the new technique for those people who are making them. The thing is when you're making gun pieces it's a disposable or sellable piece meaning they're likely producing multiple of the same models. They will easily adapt techniques that continue to work for them while our prints get filtered into that group despite having nothing to do with guns.
I also think we should be able to print whatever the fuck we want with our own devices, but even from their perspective it's not going to work. This seems like a handwave attempt at garnering plausible deniability from high profile cases of murder as well as sucking up to politicians and pretending they actually care about the problem.
Also in my original post I forgot this applies to CNC machines too, this is going to be a shitshow.
masterspace@lemmy.ca · -2 pts · 37d