GoKawiilDavid Tobin, the Executive Director of the Community Manufacturing Initiative, and producer for the 3D Printing Nerd YouTube channel, stood on the floor of the Rocky Mountain RepRap Festival. He waved his arms emphatically while encouraging a group of event sponsors to take a stand against legislation threatening 3D printing. “All this will be gone! The RepRap community? Gone! Gone, if this is allowed to pass.”
As one of the country’s largest gatherings of consumer 3D printing enthusiasts, RMRRF drew nearly 6,000 people to showcase creative projects and home-brewed hardware in Loveland, Colorado. Only two major 3D printer manufacturers joined the festival, Prusa Research with a large display of hardware, and Snapmaker, whose team walked the floor to chat with makers. Both companies are vocal supporters of open source ideals, a belief that innovation should be shared freely.
That spirit of innovation is currently under threat from well-intended, but arguably ill-informed lawmakers who are working to ban 3D printed “ghost guns.” Tobin spoke at RMRRF that afternoon about the potential harm of government overreach from his home state of California, which is rapidly pushing a bill to install blocking technology on every 3D printer. California’s AB 2047 would allow the state’s Department of Justice to monitor every 3D printer in the state in an attempt to prevent guns from being printed. It would also ban open-source firmware like Marlin and Klipper that sit at the heart of most consumer 3D printers. Any machine not approved by California would become illegal, which includes every 3D printer currently used by consumers, businesses, and schools.
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Current 3D printers are doomed to become e-waste, as they lack the computing power, cameras, and even wi-fi components that would allow them to be upgraded to work with the as-yet-to-be-invented monitoring systems. Most machines currently in use would be illegal to sell within the state of California.
Tobin wants to educate both lawmakers and everyday citizens on the positive benefits of 3D printing. He also wants to give 3D printing enthusiasts the tools to pick up the fight to support 3D printing without engaging in political rage bait on social media.
“It's very easy to get caught up in the emotional arguments with this. There's passionate people on both sides of it. And there's some very volatile things you can say to get people fired up. But that's bait. Don't play that game,” he told his audience. He said this is an issue about education, technology, and science.
David Tobin traveled with friends from the 3D printing community to Sacramento, CA. (Image credit: Anne Pauley)
One of the surprising things Tobin learned when he visited California’s capital to speak with lawmakers was what he characterized as misinformation being spread by a lobbying group called Everytown for Gun Safety .
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