All,

Defense Distributed's advancements in rifle receiver and magazine printing have been plagued since December 2012 by a growing chorus of legislators demanding that the activities we popularized this year be made illegal from the municipal to the federal level.

Since May, Chuck Schumer and other New York Democrats have been trying to get out of House and Senate committees bills that would renew the Undetectable Firearms Act but also widen its prohibitions to cover 3D printed receivers and magazines- a naked effort at making inroads into the next generation of the digital manufacture of weapons. These changes can been seen in the proposed bills here and here. Sections 4 and 5, please don't just take my word for it.

As the picture above demonstrates, the imaging game has changed. Advanced digital imaging techniques render much of the airport metal detector concern mute, and certainly not applicable to concerns about polymer magazines and receivers- concerns no one actually has.

Perhaps you've seen the latest round of press on the issue since DOJ has been pushing the usual media organs to carry the story and recycle a recent ATF press conference on The Liberator. Schumer and company tried to pass the new UFA without debate last week after Reid implemented the controversial cloture rules change, and so it's time to stand up for your rights if you are interested in preserving an individual right to firearm manufacture. Sens. Cruz and Lee may be with us, and they are worth contacting.

This is a gun control effort wrapped in security theater. Anyone can buy a plastic mag and receiver online or at Walmart. Mandating arbitrary amounts of metal be part of their fabrication is an attempt to frustrate and suppress the development of this technology and narrow your liberties under your nose.

Ross Ulbricht is accused of running the online drug marketplace Silk Road and of planning hired murders associated with that site's activities.

His mother and family have few resources to provide for his fair trial, and yes, so far he has been treated more callously than the most heinous criminals- staying for weeks in segregation, not being provided access to basic phone services, and being kept from his family and lawyer. Most recently he has been denied bail outright.

His mother Lyn is a friend of Defense Distributed and asks you kindly to be critical of the State's case against her son and to listen to his family's account of his life and nature. They do not believe he is guilty of the crimes of which he is accused, and I admit the State's case looks much more problematic than the slam dunk the media has breathlessly promoted.

Please take the time to visit FreeRoss.org and consider contributing to Ross' legal defense. His fight will last years, and as a libertarian champion he at least deserves our good will and the benefit of the doubt.