Washington House Bill 2321, while presented as a measure against 3D-printed firearms, is argued to be a Trojan horse for broader government control over manufacturing and intellectual property, potentially leading to widespread censorship of digital fabrication.
Mind Map
Click to expand
Click to explore the full interactive mind map • Zoom, pan, and navigate
Welcome to the studio. The last video
was the warning. This video is the
reality check. In the last 48 hours, the
response has been massive. I've seen
thousands of comments from you. I also
saw the breakdown from William Kirk over
at Washington Gun Law. He highlighted my
recent video and expost and asked for me
to reach out to discuss this technical
side of this bill. William, consider it
done. I'll be contacting you and I'm
sure we're going to have a very
enlightening conversation about this
technology and I will share all of that
with you here. But right now, looking at
the reaction to this bill, I think many
of you are missing a larger point and
that's really the reason for this video.
This bill isn't just about 3D printed
firearms and there seems to be a lot of
confusion about that. That is the Trojan
horse. The language in Washington House
Bill 2321 is focused heavily on
manufacturers. It requires aggressive
blocking technology and it requires a
database of prohibited files. Right now,
that database might be focused on
firearm components. But who manages that
database? The Washington State Attorney
General. Who decides what gets added to
that database next year? The attorney
general. Once that infrastructure is
built, once your printer has a direct
line to a state-run list of banned
shapes, do you honestly think that
they're going to stop at firearms? This
brings me to the scariest part. This is
the perfect framework for copyright enforcement.
enforcement.
Today it's a Glock frame, which many of
you might not even care about. But
tomorrow that database updates and
suddenly your printer refuses to print a
Star Wars helmet because Disney flagged
it. Next week you can't print a
replacement part for your truck or
tractor because Ford and John Deere
claim it violates their IP. They are
building an architecture of censorship
right inside your home and they're
selling it to you as public safety.
There is a dangerous idea floating
around in the comments of my previous
video that pre-ban machines are safe.
You think that because you own a 3D
printer today that you are grandfathered
in forever. But you're wrong. They
aren't going to allow a million
unregulated manufacturing factories to
exist in basements across Washington and
New York. History shows us exactly how
this plays out. They start with the
sale. They stop the flow of new devices.
Then they work backward. They will use
safety to force mandatory firmware
upgrades. Or they will simply pass a new
law that says possession of a
non-compliant device after a certain
date is a felony. We have seen this with
firearms and firearms accessories.
People bought items that were 100%
legal. They own them for years. Then a
ruling changes and overnight, without
doing anything wrong, these owners
became criminals. You're a 2-year-old
printer that doesn't have this
government spyware installed. It will be
deemed a public safety threat. Now, some
of you are thinking, "That's fine. I'll
just fly under the radar. I'll keep my
old printer and I'll just stay quiet."
Well, that works for most people, but we
are moving into an era where privacy is
basically dead. Here's a quick story. I
live on a rural ranch, and during the
height of the lockdowns, I took my
oldest son out for a driving lesson with
our truck and trailer. We were in the
middle of nowhere. I mean, probably
population three out there on some rural
road. Later that week, I got a call from
a friend of mine in law enforcement. He
told me someone had called and reported
me to the state for violating the
stay-at-home mandate. Now, we laughed
about it because it was absurd and
nothing came of it. They weren't
enforcing it anyway, but it taught me a
valuable lesson. If you post a picture
of your printer online, if you share a
photo of a print, you are one phone call
away from a concerned citizen reporting
you to the state. If possessing a
non-compliant printer becomes illegal,
you are trusting your freedom to the
silence of your neighbors. So
ultimately, what this means, if a law
like this passes, you can't rely on
having an older machine or older
existing hardware to be safe. you will
be likely forced into the new hardware.
Now, a couple of years ago, I asked my
community if they ever thought
government would require licenses for
machine shops. Overwhelmingly, they all
said no. That that was a conspiracy
theory. But things look a little bit
different now, don't they? This bill
includes subtractive manufacturing. It
specifically speaks of CNC machines or
any machine that is controlled by code
that removes material from an object. It
then includes a section that exempts
your machines, including 3D printers, if
you have a federal firearms license.
This is a fullon press on manufacturing
and machine shops, not just our 3D
printers. They are destroying at-ome
manufacturing by requiring all of these
machines to comply with a ridiculous
level of complexity or be licensed. Your
atome Carva CNC machine, it will be
illegal unless it connects to the same
blacklist system as your 3D printers.
The state wants all machine shops to be
licensed or illegal. There's no longer a
hobby or small business middle ground.
So, I have a question for you, something
to think about. Since the legislation is
so broad and farreaching, could hobby 3D
printers come to an end? Will this all
end with 3D printers existing only in
licensed 3D print farms? And if so,
would you license go get an FFL to have
your 3D printers in your farm? Let me
know in the comments. Now, let's look at
the companies in 3D printing. Bamboo
Lab, Puscha, Reality, and so many more.
Do you think that they're going to
manufacture a special Washington state
edition printer and a different one for
the rest of the country? No. Absolutely
not. This would be a logistical
nightmare. The pressure from these
states, Washington, New York,
California, is immense. If these markets
demand spyware, it is cheaper and safer
for these companies to roll out software
to everyone. Now, we've already seen
Flash Forge capitulate on similar
issues, right? You all saw the email and
the social media posts where they were
way ahead of this type of legislation,
basically saying, "Hey, don't print
these things on your printer or we're
going to report you." So, quite a bit of
overreach there. If this passes, Bamboo
isn't going to fight for your rights.
They're going to calculate the liability
and they will likely decide that it's
easier to install the handshake code for
everyone than to risk losing access to
the US market, which is the largest
market in 3D printing. And don't think
that you can just use an old slicer with
a new printer. This bill implies a
handshake. The software must
authenticate the hardware. If your
slicer doesn't have the government
update, the printer won't print.
Understand this. The smaller 3D printer
companies, artillery, soal, cheaty, they
don't have the capital to develop and
comply with this blacklist system. This
is truly catastrophic for our industry
if this bill passes. I see the comments
from the Boron crowd. I build kits. I'm
safe. They can't ban parts. You are
underestimating how aggressive a state
can be. There is a little thing called
spirit of the law. And if a company
ships you a box of parts that is
intended to become a non-compliant
printer, they would be liable. I know
this because I've lived it. I was once
on the receiving end of a lawsuit from a
state government. They sued me for,
let's just say, tens of millions of
dollars. I didn't violate a single law.
My company followed every rule, but the
state felt I wasn't complying with the
spirit or the intent of the regulations.
What they wanted was access to my
customer records. But I stood my ground
and I made it clear that I would spend
every last penny I had protecting the
privacy and rights of my customers. They
didn't care about the letter of the law.
They cared about control. And they use
their infinite budget to try and crush
me civily. This is what will happen to
those kit companies. The state will sue
them into oblivion until they stop
shipping to you. This bill won't be the
last. And if it doesn't pass this
session, they will try again next
session. And what comes next? That's
called a cleanup bill. If this bill
passes, it is all but certain that it
will be followed by additional
legislation. Bills that make any or all
existing 3D printers or 3D printing kits
illegal if they don't connect and comply
with their spyware. The costs will be
enormous for these companies, and they
will almost certainly be forced to
implement these privacy and freedom
invading systems. But they won't be just
for Washington. They will be forced on
the entire country likely and maybe even
the world. And then don't get me started
on filament. All they have to do is
declare PLA or PTG bad for the
environment, label it single-use
plastic, and they can crush the entire
industry with regulatory pressure
overnight. They don't need to ban the
printers if they just ban the fuel. I
know every everyone thought that my
dystopian 3D printer banning
idea was too far-fetched.
Well, here it is. We are watching an
industry being suffocated by people who
do not understand it. But we are not
powerless. These proposed laws don't
make sense because they are written by
people who fear what we can create. We
need to change that narrative. We need
to educate the public. We need to show
them that 3D printing is about
innovation. It's about repair and it's
about creativity, not just scary ghost
guns. Now, I want you to respectfully
contact your representatives. I'll have
that information in the description
below. But do not be a troll, right? Be
a creator. Be a uniter. Share your
stories. Tell them how these laws crush
creative freedom. Tell them how they
violate your right to expression. The
question is this. Will the 3D printing
companies just give up or will they
fight for us? I want to know what you
think. Let me know in the comments
below. Thanks for watching. I hope you
enjoyed it and I will see you in the
next one. And also, YouTube wants you to
go watch this one, but I don't know what
it is, but I'm hoping it's one of two
videos. Either it's the video that came
right before this one, or it's uh my
dystopian future where 3D printers are banned.
banned.
Click on any text or timestamp to jump to that moment in the video
Share:
Most transcripts ready in under 5 seconds
One-Click Copy125+ LanguagesSearch ContentJump to Timestamps
Paste YouTube URL
Enter any YouTube video link to get the full transcript
Transcript Extraction Form
Most transcripts ready in under 5 seconds
Get Our Chrome Extension
Get transcripts instantly without leaving YouTube. Install our Chrome extension for one-click access to any video's transcript directly on the watch page.
