New Bill Would Make Plastic Guns and Magazines Illegal
OutdoorHub Reporters 05.09.13
A new bill, H.R. 1474, was introduced to the House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee on April 10 which would ban plastic firearms and magazines. This includes both those that you could make at home with a 3D printer and those made by big name companies such as Magpul and Ruger.
Magpul, which specializes in polymer firearms accessories, could be put out of business if this bill were to pass as it would make the majority of their products illegal.
The introduction of this bill can be seen as a reaction to the recent development of 3D-printed guns and magazines, as the bill states 3D printing as a reason for the bill in section 2, paragraph 3. The bill expresses concerns that 3D printing is advancing so quickly that anyone will soon be able to print firearms at-will.
This bill can also be seen to be an attempt to make AR-15s less accessible, as polymer magazines such as Magpul’s PMAG are a popular choice and would become illegal under this bill.
H.R. 1474 works by expanding the Undetectable Firearms Act of 1988 to include firearm receivers and magazines.
Receivers
The bill states that a receiver will be banned if it is not as easily detectable by security scans as the fabricated “standard” for receivers. The standard proposed would be a 3.7-ounce piece of stainless steel modeled after the shape of a lower receiver for a rifle or handgun, depending on the weapon in question.
This would cause receivers such as New Frontier’s LW-15 to enter into an area of suspect legality, and make 3D-printed guns outright illegal.
Magazines
Concerning magazines, H.R. 1474 stipulates that a magazine is illegal if the magazine is not as easily detected by security scans as a “standard” for magazine legality, the same as for the receivers. The proposed standard would be a one-ounce piece of stainless steel modeled after the magazine in question.
This would make 3D-printed magazines such as the one listed on Defense Distributed illegal, as well as retail magazines such as Ruger’s polymer gunscout rifle magazine.
The full text for H.R. 1474 can be found here.
