this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2026
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267
California’s New Bill Requires DOJ-Approved 3D Printers That Report on Themselves (blog.adafruit.com)
submitted 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) by Beep@lemmus.org to c/technology@lemmy.world
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California’s new bill requires DOJ-approved 3D printers that report on themselves targeting general-purpose machines.

Assembly Member Bauer-Kahan introduced AB-2047, the “California Firearm Printing Prevention Act,” on February 17th. The bill would ban the sale or transfer of any 3D printer in California unless it appears on a state-maintained roster of approved makes and models… certified by the Department of Justice as equipped with “firearm blocking technology.” Manufacturers would need to submit attestations for every make and model. The DOJ would publish a list. If your printer isn’t on the list by March 1, 2029, it can’t be sold. In addition, knowingly disabling or circumventing the blocking software is a misdemeanor.

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[–] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 15 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (2 children)

Frankly it seems more like a mild inconvenience then actual prevention. I don't really care how smart a software gets, it can't predict and prevent all possible configurations of prints that could possibly be used to create functioning guns without being so overly restrictive that even perfectly innocent prints would get flagged constantly in which case they simple won't sell to normal users.

It would be a constant game of whack a mole with new creative designs, using multiple printers or with non-printed parts in the design. But no hardware or software that a smart enough engineer has their hands on is impervious to mods either, especially if they're motivated like someone seeking to produce firearms would be.

It's an overreaching law that will likely solve little to nothing, but might make 3d printers in general a bit more annoying to work with. "Sorry, you can't make your dice tower because they're a 16 percent change that it could be capable of firing an RPG out of the dragon's mouth. Please make your design at least 12 percent less gun-ish and try again."

[–] Naia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 minute ago

The only way these things could be implemented is if they phone home to some "AI" model. Printers themselves do not have anywhere near enough power to do any kind of analysis like that. Mine crashes if my microsteps are too high.

So its pretty obvious that the goal of this is to invade people's privacy and will likely try to use it to block copyrighted material if it built. It's the age verification BS all over.

[–] billwashere@lemmy.world 2 points 15 hours ago

Wow. I hadn’t even thought about some of these ways around this. Excellent points!!