The First Amendment, Second Amendment, and 3D-Printed Guns

“We are standing at the dawn of the next great industrial revolution. Three-dimensional printing transforms designs on a computer into three-dimensional objects of all shapes and sizes. From the convenience of home, people can print an infinite number of personalized and customized ‘things.’ However, one manifestation of this bold new technology threatens to cast a specter on innovation: 3D printed guns.”¹Josh Blackman will explore how efforts to regulate, or even ban 3D guns, must satisfy constitutional scrutiny under both the First and Second Amendments.

Josh Blackman is an Associate Professor of Law at the South Texas College of Law who specializes in constitutional law, the United States Supreme Court, and the intersection of law and technology. Josh is the author of the critically acclaimed Unprecedented: The Constitutional Challenge to Obamacare.

Josh was selected by Forbes Magazine for the “30 Under 30″ in Law and Policy. Josh has testified before the House Judiciary Committee on the constitutionality of executive action on immigration.  Josh is the founder and President of the Harlan Institute, the founder of FantasySCOTUS, the Internet’s Premier Supreme Court Fantasy League, and blogs at JoshBlackman.com.  Josh leads the cutting edge of legal analytics as Director of Judicial Research at LexPredict.  Josh is the author of over two dozen law review articles, and his commentary has appeared in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, USA Today, L.A. Times, and other national publications.

Josh clerked for the Honorable Danny J. Boggs on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit and for the Honorable Kim R. Gibson on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

Josh is a graduate of the George Mason University School of Law.

¹    Josh Blackman, The 1st Amendment, 2nd Amendment, and 3D Printed Guns, 81 Tenn. L. Rev. 479 (2014)