The Justice Department made a deal on releasing the blueprints on 3-D guns without President Donald Trump's approval — and he welcomed a federal judge's decision to delay the move to "give more time to review the issue," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday.
"The president is glad this effort was delayed to give more time to review the issue," Sanders told reporters at the White House briefing. "This administration supports the decades-old legislation already on the books that prohibits the ownership of a wholly plastic gun."
U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik in Seattle on Tuesday temporarily stopped the release of the blueprints to the Internet.
"There is a possibility of irreparable harm because of the way these guns can be made," he said in his ruling.
Trump said Tuesday that he was "looking into" the issue.
The Justice Department reached an agreement with Cody Wilson, founder of Defense Distributed, a digital publishing company, last week.
Wilson had sued the Obama administration over his plans to distribute blueprints to print a plastic, functioning gun. The blueprints were to be posted at midnight Wednesday.
The weapons are made of polymer that cannot be flagged by metal detectors — and they are untraceable because the firearms are homemade and do not have serial numbers.
Attorneys General from eight states and the District of Columbia have sued the Trump administration to prevent Wilson's company from releasing its plans online.
The National Rifle Association said Tuesday that "undetectable plastic guns have been illegal for 30 years" and that it had helped craft legislation in 1988 to outlaw them.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.