3-D plastic guns: How the political script has flipped on First Amendment

Earlier this summer, when the United States Department of Justice quietly settled a long-standing free-speech lawsuit brought by the Texas coder Cody Wilson, many gun rights groups hailed the decision as the beginning of the end for gun control.

In an era of powerful 3D printing, digital technology has made it possible to construct virtually undetectable plastic guns that could be made relatively simply in the privacy of home. The result, say Mr. Wilson and others, could be an unstoppable “disintermediating the State” since such weapons are without manufacturer markings and serial numbers and can remain outside the reach of state bureaucracies and various restrictive gun laws.

Yet the prospect of such stealthy, 3D-printable “ghost guns,” as detractors call them, has laid bare yet another cultural challenge to the concept of freedom of speech and the free flow of information, many scholars say.

In some ways, the advent of printable guns has reversed certain

Question of 'prior restraint'Technology outpacing the law