The New York Gun Ban is Coming for Your 3d Printer (and more!)

New York just became the first state in the country to order your 3D printer to scan what you make — and decide whether you're allowed to make it. It's buried in the state budget, it redefines a computer file as a "firearm product," and the software to enforce it was picked out seven months before the law existed. I'm Leonard French, a copyright and tech attorney, and this one isn't really about guns. It's about who controls the tools you bought and paid for. In this video I break down what New York's FY2027 budget (S.9005-C / A.10005-C, Part C) actually does — separating the law that PASSED from the scarier version everyone online is still reacting to: The "ghost gun" that set this off — and why the new law wouldn't have stopped it How a budget bill quietly swept in 3D printers, CNC machines, and lathes The "convertible pistol" / Glock-switch ban and its wild definition of "common household tools" Why sharing a gun design file is now a crime — and the safe harbors nobody's talking about The First Amendment fight over whether code is speech (Junger, Corley, and the brand-new Third Circuit ruling) Why engineers say the print-blocking tech literally can't work — and why the law admits it The Manhattan DA letter that named the surveillance software before any of this was law What this means for the rest of us: right-to-repair, open-source firmware, and who really "owns" a machine Whatever you think about firearms, the architecture being built here is the story. If a tool can be forced to phone home for permission before it does what you bought it to do — do you own it? 00:00 - THE TABLE SAW 01:15 - THE GUN THAT WASN'T 04:14 - BURIED IN THE BUDGET 06:21 - THE FILE IS THE CRIME 08:34 - IS CODE SPEECH? 11:41 - IT CAN'T DO WHAT THEY ASKED 14:30 - THE VENDOR CAME FIRST 16:58 - WHO OWNS THE MACHINE 18:42 - Please Support Lawful Masses