H.R. 4143

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4143 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 4143

To amend chapter 44 of title 18, United States Code, to prohibit the 
distribution of 3D printer plans for the printing of firearms, and for 
other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

June 25, 2025

Mr. Moskowitz (for himself, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, and Mr. Schneider) 
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

A BILL

To amend chapter 44 of title 18, United States Code, to prohibit the 
distribution of 3D printer plans for the printing of firearms, and for 
other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ``3D Printed Gun Safety Act of 2025''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

Congress finds the following:
(1) Three dimensional, or ``3D'', printing involves the 
programming of a 3D printing machine with a computer file that 
provides the schematics for the item to be printed.
(2) Recent technological developments have allowed for the 
3D printing of firearms and firearm parts, including parts made 
out of plastic, by unlicensed individuals in possession of 
relatively inexpensive 3D printers.
(3) Because 3D printing allows individuals to make their 
own firearms out of plastic, they may be able to evade 
detection by metal detectors at security checkpoints, 
increasing the risk that a firearm will be used to perpetrate 
violence on an airplane or other area where people congregate.
(4) The availability of online schematics for the 3D 
printing of firearms and firearm parts increases the risk that 
dangerous people, including felons, domestic abusers, and other 
people prohibited from possessing firearms under Federal law, 
will obtain a firearm through 3D printing.
(5) On June 7, 2013, an assailant used a gun he had 
constructed by himself to kill his father, brother, and 3 other 
people at Santa Monica College in California. The person had 
failed a background check when he tried to purchase a gun from 
a licensed gun dealer. The gun he used was made from an 
unfinished AR-15-style receiver, similar to a receiver that can 
now be made with a 3D printer.
(6) Firearms tracing is a powerful investigative tool. When 
law enforcement agencies recover firearms that have been used 
in crimes, the agencies work with the Bureau of Alcohol, 
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to trace these firearms to 
their first retail purchaser. The agencies can use that 
information to investigate and solve the crimes. In 2024, the 
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives processed 
more than 639,295 trace requests.
(7) Firearms tracing depends on the ability to identify 
firearms based on their serial number. Traditionally, when a 
firearm is manufactured domestically or imported from abroad, 
it is engraved with a serial number and markings that identify 
the manufacturer or importer, make, model, and caliber, and are 
unique to the firearm. Firearms made by unlicensed individuals 
with 3D printers, however, do not contain genuine serial 
numbers.
(8) Criminals seek firearms without serial numbers because 
they cannot be traced. In July 2018, the Los Angeles Police 
Department completed a 6-month-long investigation that resulted 
in the seizure of 45 firearms, some of which had been assembled 
without serial numbers in order to be untraceable. In 2023, the 
Metropolitan Police Department in the District of Columbia 
recovered 407 ghost guns. If the schematics for 3D printing 
firearms and firearm parts are available online, people 
intending to commit gun crimes may create similarly untraceable 
firearms in order to avoid accountability for these crimes.
(9) Interstate gun trafficking, including the trafficking 
of untraceable firearms, interferes with lawful commerce in 
firearms and significantly contributes to gun crime. The Bureau 
of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives discovered 46,037 
guns from 2017 to 2021 that were trafficked interstate.
(10) The proliferation of 3D-printed firearms threatens to 
undermine the entire Federal firearms regulatory scheme and to 
endanger public safety and national security. By making illegal 
the distribution of certain computer code that can be used 
automatically to program 3D printers and create firearms--the 
only means of combating this unique threat--Congress seeks not 
to regulate the rights of computer programmers under the First 
Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, but rather 
to curb the pernicious effects of untraceable--and potentially 
undetectable--firearms.

SEC. 3. PROHIBITION.

Section 922 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding 
at the end the following:
``(aa) Distribution of Code for 3D Printed Firearms.--It shall be 
unlawful for any person to intentionally distribute, over the internet 
or by means of the World Wide Web, digital instructions in the form of 
Computer Aided Design files or other code that can automatically 
program a 3-dimensional printer or similar device to produce a firearm 
or complete a firearm from an unfinished frame or receiver.''.
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