It appears that California AB2047, the proposed law to control 3D printers, has passed the California legislature.
The California Senate passed the amended bill, 30-10 in favour, which was then passed back to the assembly. They promptly approved it with a vote of 60-18 in favour on September 4th.
This does not quite yet mean the bill has become law in California. There are a few steps remaining, not the least of which is that the Governor must sign off on the bill. In theory, the bill could be rejected (vetoed) by the Governor, but that is likely not going to happen: would the Governor want to be seen by the public to “support gun violence” by not taking action?
If signed, the bill becomes law and that’s when the interesting stuff begins.
The amended version of the bill completely avoided all the technical problems by instead starting a waiting period that ends July 1, 2027. During that time, the California Department of Justice must look for a standard issued by ASTM about how 3D printers must be controlled to avoid printing weapons. If ASTM issues such a standard, then the DOJ has 24 months to write up and publish guidance to the public (and 3D printer manufacturers) about how all this is supposed to technically work.
Of course, it cannot technically work.
It seems very unlikely that ASTM would issue a standard for this issue, and I am not sure they are even interested in doing so. If they don’t issue a standard, the bill is effectively neutered.
If that happens, it should be a win for everyone:
3D printer manufacturers won’t have to implement ridiculous, privacy-violating, technology-inhibiting, more expensive controls
3D printer operators won’t have to pay or be subject to those controls
Open source 3D printer developers can continue working as is
Law enforcement resources can continue to be spent chasing perps using techniques of today that actually work
Hopefully, this is a signal to other jurisdictions that are considering similar legislation.
