California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed a law that could require newly sold 3D printers to block firearm production. It isn’t an immediate ban on printing guns: the requirement depends on an industry technical standard that hasn’t been developed yet, followed by state rules for putting it into practice.
The law, AB 2047, aims to stop printers from producing firearms from digital blueprints. Once the standard and regulations are in place, newly sold printers would have to recognize and block files suitable for making firearms. The system would check a digital design before printing begins and stop any job it identifies as prohibited. Existing printers wouldn’t need to be retrofitted.
ASTM International must first develop an industry standard for the blocking technology. Starting in July 2027, California’s Department of Justice must check every quarter whether that standard has been published. If it has, the department must then draw up detailed regulations setting minimum requirements for printers sold in the state. If no standard has appeared by July 2029, the department no longer has to keep checking.
Those conditions leave a gap between the governor’s signature and any requirement to block printing. The law sets no immediate rollout, and it’s still unclear when the technology will be technically feasible.
As reported by Rakéta, citing Tom’s Hardware, the legislation responds to the availability of downloadable designs for 3D-printable guns online. As printing technology develops, efforts to prevent illegal firearm manufacturing increasingly have to balance that goal against the risk of unnecessarily restricting ordinary users’ print jobs.
Filtering those files isn’t straightforward. Firearm components can resemble parts of everyday objects, so an automated screening system could mistakenly block harmless designs. Changes to digital design files could also make reliable detection harder. Rakéta’s analysis argues that the law’s practical success depends not just on lawmakers’ intentions, but also on how accurately the technology identifies firearm designs and how difficult it is to bypass.
California is the second US state, after New York, to adopt legislation aimed at this kind of printer-level blocking. Similar proposals are under consideration in other states. Whether these protections become a standard feature of 3D printers could depend on the industry’s work over the coming years. California’s first scheduled checkpoint is in July 2027: has ASTM produced a standard the state can turn into enforceable requirements?
