Washington (CNN) Gun control groups lost an emergency bid Friday to block a Texas organization from posting instructions to 3-D print a gun online.

The firm, a non-profit called Defense Distributed, had reached a settlement with the State Department last month that would allow it to publish the plans for their plastic handgun called "The Liberator" on their website -- five years after the government first made the group take them down.

The single-shot pistol was made almost entirely out of ABS plastic -- the same material Lego bricks are made from -- that could be made on a 3-D printer. The only metal parts were the firing pin and a piece of metal included to comply with the Undetectable Firearms Act.

The move to try and intervene in the case by three leading gun organizations -- The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Everytown for Gun Safety and Giffords, a group founded by former Rep Gabby Giffords -- was a last-ditch attempt to thwart Defense Distributed ahead of its expected online release of the blueprints on August 1.

In a filing, a Texas federal judge faulted the groups for failing to prove that they were actually a legitimate party to the case.

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