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California’s New Bill Requires DOJ-Approved 3D Printers That Report on Themselves
(blog.adafruit.com)
This is true and very underreported.
this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2026
284 points (99.3% liked)
Technology
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Just when I think California couldn't possibly come up with dumber laws, they deliver yet again.
There's genuine concerns they could be addressing but instead go after something that's going to be near impossible for them to enforce.
Blueprints for homemade 3D printers exist that can be built with a pretty short list of parts from Digikey.
It’s not law yet, and may never be.
That's comforting to hear. Thank you.
I was going to say, I thought open source 3D Printer designs/kits have been a thing for awhile. My friend just built his own last year using his original 3D printer to help in the process, lol
The entire hobby is built on open source, it’s only very very recently that commercial hobby level printers were worth a damn
...And even then, they're leveraging the open source under the hood. Even your locked-down Bambu piece of shit uses slicing software based on Slic3r.
Wait so far these things are relatively trivial pieces of equipment in terms of software, no? Read instructions, move stepper motors/control heating elements.
So realistically what we're looking at is hash based block lists for known firearm and parts designs, which would be trivial to circumvent by adding the equivalent of noop instructions to the .gcode files 🤷♂️
They'll do anything but adopt firearm laws that are relevant and sensible.
To be fair, California has some of the strictest gun laws in the US. That's a low bar though.
And most of those laws are either stupid, out of touch, racist, or multiple of those. In a fair amount of times it's all three.
No, realistically what we're looking at is a full ban on 3D printing as a whole because anything the printer does "might" be a gun part.
And then shortly after, a ban on property rights as a whole, because anything you own with a circuit board or a stepper motor in it "might" be modified to create an illegal 3D printer.
Idiots
HEY CALIFORNIA DO YOU KNOW WHO IS LEADING THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE RIGHT NOW????? WHY ARE YOU COMING UP WITH THIS AT ALL, LET ALONE WITH THIS ADMINISTRATION IN POWER????
Oh wait, Gavin Newsom is the governor, that explains everything. Of course the DINO who's only mad at Trump for stealing his spotlight would try to push a stupid law like this.
This law is stupid, but it's coming from some nobody in the bay area trying to get her name out there, not Newsom
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- The printer doesn't know what it is printing, the slicer does, and at that point just use an open source slicer
- Just drive to Arizona, Nevada, or Oregon, buy a printer, and drive back, The MicroCenter in Phoenix just opened up.
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I could make a working metal gun in a day with hand tools and a trip to home depot. Guns aren't magical complicated devices. It's a handle and a tube and a pin that smacks a bullet.
This bill is the epitome of stupid and one of the reasons the left has had so many issues becoming the party leaders. Stop trying to play "big brother" and stop trying to fuck with the 2nd amendment.
They wanna plug their ears and pretend slam fire pipe shotguns aren't a thing. Like seriously all you need is two short pipes, a cap and a bolt for the firing pin. You can use the sidewalk to grind down the bolt so you don't even need another tool.
Shovel AK is still a thing, but this is not about guns. That is just the cloak of fear (ie - protect the children!) for legislating away your right to own things. Corpos are pissed you can make and/or repair the things they'd rather you buy again.
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What are they going to do? Put IoT DRM in every stepper motor?
Already contacted my assembly person to oppose it. I get the intent behind it, but theres no way im going to ask the government for permission to use my own hardware.
I dont even own a 3D printer yet, but I wouldn't want to be subject to such a bad and dumb law if and when that changes.
But….if someone sold a manually operated plastic extruder, that’s fine?
And if someone separately sold CAM software that’s fine too?
Just sayin’