The United States is a country awash in firearms. For the most part, these weapons are legally owned by responsible people. But now there is a new kind of gun that can be made with 3D printers and other basic tools.

They could readily become the weapon of choice for terrorists, gang members and criminals. Because they are made of plastic, they won't set off metal detectors at security conscious locations such as airports, schools and large gatherings.

Equally troubling is that they can be impossible to trace since they can be made at a home or a clandestine location without serial numbers.

The threat of a proliferation of 3D-print plastic guns became a real concern when a Texas gun rights group called Defense Distributed announced its intention to resume making design schematics available on the internet after reaching a settlement with the Trump administration.

That prompted New Jersey and several other states and the District of Columbia to join Washington state in a federal lawsuit to prevent the group from publishing the blueprints.

New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal took the added step of filing an emergency restraining order in state Superior Court last week to block the group from making the plans public. This followed a cease-and-desist letter Grewal sent to Cody Wilson, the founder of group.

Grewal made the right move to keep these plastic guns from becoming common lethal weapons. New Jersey, which has some of the toughest gun laws in the country, doesn't need untraceable and reportedly unsafe plastic guns on the streets of our cities and towns.

The states' effort to prevent Defense Distributed from going public with its gun-making plans got a favorable ruling from a federal judge in Seattle who issued a temporary restraining order just hours before those plans were scheduled to go online.

Without a doubt, this case is fraught with all kinds of constitutional questions and Wilson has already filed a federal civil rights lawsuit claiming the legal objections amounted to "an unconstitutional prior restraint."

The group contends the publication of open-source designs for firearms is protected under both the First and Second amendments.

But before all the legal questions are settled, the safety of the public should be uppermost. For that reason, it makes sense to put a hold on the dissemination of what could be dangerous information.

But all this legal maneuvering may have little impact in the end. The Pandora's Box has already been opened and other websites have stepped in to share the 3D-printer directions for making plastic guns and thousands of downloads have already been made.

Unfortunately, the marvels of technology can work both ways.

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