119-hr4143

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4143 Introduced in House

    (IH) ]

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119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
 H. R. 4143

 To amend chapter 44 of title 18, United States Code, to prohibit the 
distribution of 3D printer plans for the printing of firearms, and for 
 other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

 June 25, 2025

 Mr. Moskowitz (for himself, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, and Mr. Schneider) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
 the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

 A BILL

 To amend chapter 44 of title 18, United States Code, to prohibit the 
distribution of 3D printer plans for the printing of firearms, and for 
 other purposes.

 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

 This Act may be cited as the ``3D Printed Gun Safety Act of 2025''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

 Congress finds the following:

    (1) Three dimensional, or ``3D'', printing involves the 
 programming of a 3D printing machine with a computer file that 
 provides the schematics for the item to be printed.

    (2) Recent technological developments have allowed for the 
 3D printing of firearms and firearm parts, including parts made 
 out of plastic, by unlicensed individuals in possession of 
 relatively inexpensive 3D printers.

    (3) Because 3D printing allows individuals to make their 
 own firearms out of plastic, they may be able to evade 
 detection by metal detectors at security checkpoints, 
 increasing the risk that a firearm will be used to perpetrate 
 violence on an airplane or other area where people congregate.

    (4) The availability of online schematics for the 3D 
 printing of firearms and firearm parts increases the risk that 
 dangerous people, including felons, domestic abusers, and other 
 people prohibited from possessing firearms under Federal law, 
 will obtain a firearm through 3D printing.

    (5) On June 7, 2013, an assailant used a gun he had 
 constructed by himself to kill his father, brother, and 3 other 
 people at Santa Monica College in California. The person had 
 failed a background check when he tried to purchase a gun from 
 a licensed gun dealer. The gun he used was made from an 
 unfinished AR-15-style receiver, similar to a receiver that can 
 now be made with a 3D printer.

    (6) Firearms tracing is a powerful investigative tool. When 
 law enforcement agencies recover firearms that have been used 
 in crimes, the agencies work with the Bureau of Alcohol, 
 Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to trace these firearms to 
 their first retail purchaser. The agencies can use that 
 information to investigate and solve the crimes. In 2024, the 
 Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives processed 
 more than 639,295 trace requests.

    (7) Firearms tracing depends on the ability to identify 
 firearms based on their serial number. Traditionally, when a 
 firearm is manufactured domestically or imported from abroad, 
 it is engraved with a serial number and markings that identify 
 the manufacturer or importer, make, model, and caliber, and are 
 unique to the firearm. Firearms made by unlicensed individuals 
 with 3D printers, however, do not contain genuine serial 
 numbers.

    (8) Criminals seek firearms without serial numbers because 
 they cannot be traced. In July 2018, the Los Angeles Police 
 Department completed a 6-month-long investigation that resulted 
 in the seizure of 45 firearms, some of which had been assembled 
 without serial numbers in order to be untraceable. In 2023, the 
 Metropolitan Police Department in the District of Columbia 
 recovered 407 ghost guns. If the schematics for 3D printing 
 firearms and firearm parts are available online, people 
 intending to commit gun crimes may create similarly untraceable 
 firearms in order to avoid accountability for these crimes.

    (9) Interstate gun trafficking, including the trafficking 
 of untraceable firearms, interferes with lawful commerce in 
 firearms and significantly contributes to gun crime. The Bureau 
 of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives discovered 46,037 
 guns from 2017 to 2021 that were trafficked interstate.

    (10) The proliferation of 3D-printed firearms threatens to 
 undermine the entire Federal firearms regulatory scheme and to 
 endanger public safety and national security. By making illegal 
 the distribution of certain computer code that can be used 
 automatically to program 3D printers and create firearms--the 
 only means of combating this unique threat--Congress seeks not 
 to regulate the rights of computer programmers under the First 
 Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, but rather 
 to curb the pernicious effects of untraceable--and potentially 
 undetectable--firearms.

SEC. 3. PROHIBITION.

 

Section 922 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding 
at the end the following:
 ``

    (aa) Distribution of Code for 3D Printed Firearms.--It shall be 
unlawful for any person to intentionally distribute, over the internet 
or by means of the World Wide Web, digital instructions in the form of 
Computer Aided Design files or other code that can automatically 
program a 3-dimensional printer or similar device to produce a firearm 
or complete a firearm from an unfinished frame or receiver.''.
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