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Dori: AG Ferguson’s lawsuit over 3-D printed guns is an attention ploy for gubernatorial campaign
Jul 31, 2018, 1:56 PM
Attorney General Bob Ferguson, left, speaks as Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, center, and Solicitor General Noah Purcell look on. (AP file Photo/Elaine Thompson)
(AP file Photo/Elaine Thompson)
Bob Ferguson continued his gubernatorial campaign yesterday by filing yet another lawsuit against the Trump administration. This time he is suing over 3-D printed guns.
A guy who filed a lawsuit wanted to be able to print internet blueprints for 3-D guns, and Bob Ferguson said that shouldn鈥檛 be allowed — even though the court decided that was a First Amendment protected right. There are websites that have horrible things on them. Al-Quaeda has websites where they tell people to run down crowds with a car. There are websites that tell you how to make bombs. That is the price of a free society. The First Amendment was designed to protect unpopular speech, because the popular speech doesn鈥檛 need protection.
But with this phony lawsuit over 3-D printed guns, all Bob Ferguson is doing is trying to raise money and gain attention for his 2020 gubernatorial campaign. Bob Ferguson won鈥檛 say a thing about Sound Transit鈥檚 illegally-calculated car tab fees, the multi-billion-dollar rip-off of the people of this state. Our attorney general should be looking out for us, but he says nothing about Sound Transit. He says nothing about the millions wasted in Seattle and Olympia鈥檚 pursuit of an illegal income tax, a violation of our state constitution. Bob Ferguson runs interference for the Department of Transportation to continue illegally collecting tolls on 405. Bob Ferguson will do nothing to upset the Democratic base he needs to become governor. And he has decided that taking a stand against 3-D printed guns is another way to feed some raw meat to his Democrat supporters.
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It is legal and easy to find gun blueprints on the internet. The First Amendment does not allow the government to decide what is acceptable and what is not. Do you know how scary this world would be if we let bureaucrats like Bob Ferguson 鈥� who has nothing but self-interest, who couldn鈥檛 care less about the taxpayers of this state 鈥� got to decide what should, and should not, be on the internet? I don鈥檛 know if you want to let someone like that be your gatekeeper in life. I sure don鈥檛, and our founding fathers didn鈥檛 want anyone like him to be our gatekeeper.
Right now, any person who engages in the sale of firearms has to be licensed. So it鈥檚 already illegal to make a 3-D printed gun and sell it. Why in the world do you have to file this lawsuit if there are already laws preventing it? Also, a criminal can buy a gun on the street for $80. A 3-D printer that can manufacture such a gun costs about $100,000. There鈥檚 a price barrier to stop people from engaging in these crimes. And the laws that have cracked down on people manufacturing their own weapons 鈥� those laws fail.
Bob Ferguson made all of this about Trump because he thought this would get him headlines for his fundraiser. It is shocking how deep Bob Fergie plumbs to get attention. Everything he said in his announcement was about the president. What we have is an attorney general who is just the biggest publicity you-know-what. He just needs attention. He wants to fundraise among his Democrat base, and so he wants to decide what information you and I get to access. I don鈥檛 need gun blueprints, you probably don鈥檛 either. But the attorney general is not the one who gets to decide what you get to see on the internet.
The First Amendment protects us from rogue government officials like Bob Ferguson, about the most dangerous politician I鈥檝e ever seen in all my years of watchdogging this stuff.
