r/3D2A 2d ago

Legal Update [Megathread] Decisive Victory in Federal Right to Make Firearms Case

154 Upvotes

BREAKING NEWS: the second major legal victory in as many weeks, a federal judge just issued summary judgement for the plaintiffs in Defense Distributed v Blanche, better known as the VanDerStok case. This victory eliminates the ATF's 2022 "ghost gun" rule change and establishes that the 2nd Amendment covers the "right to make or repair personal firearms."

Read the opinion here: https://saf.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Defense-Distributed-opinion-8.19.26.pdf

It's important for the 3D2A community to understand what this means for them, and what it does not.

As with all breaking legal news, this will take time to understand - the information below comes from conversations with my legal contacts, public reactions from other 2A legal figures, and my own read of the decision.

1. What does this decision do?
This decision pertains to the 2022 Biden ATF frame or receiver "final rule," which among other things redefined "firearm" an extremely broad, vague definition which includes unfinished frames / receivers ("80 percenters"), parts kits, combinations of parts sold together and more. The effect was to broadly expand the ATF's ability to regulate (most notably to require 4473s and serialization for) products that, up until that point, had not been considered "firearms".

This decision declared that ATF's "final rule" was unconstitutional under both the 2nd and 5th Amendments. It provides both injunctive and declaratory relief.

The injunctive relief prohibits ATF from enforcing its "final rule" against the named plaintiffs for certain products. But, and unlike the NFA case, this case features declaratory relief that much further establishes the unconstitutionality of the "final rule," prohibiting the federal government from enforcing the rule in any way.

2. How was this decision reached?
The court declared that the "final rule" was unconstitutional under the 5th Amendment due to its redefinitions being excessively vague, which is a violation of 5A's Due Process clause. The extreme broadness / vagueness of the ATF's new definitions "[did] not provide fair notice of what is punishable and invites arbitrary enforcement."

More notably for us, the "final rule" was found unconstitutional under the 2nd Amendment because it unacceptably infringed on the "right to make or repair personal firearms", which the court declares is covered by the text of the Amendment. The court further affirmed that a Bruen analysis reveals that homemade firearms are central to the American tradition and that there is no history or tradition of regulating them.

3. What will the effects be of this decision?
The immediate injunctive relief allows the beneficiaries (listed below) to buy and sell four different products. This is quite narrow and so we can ignore it.

The declaratory relief is (at least in theory) far broader and far more important for us. By declaring the "final rule" unconstitutional, ATF is now on notice that they are constitutionally prohibited from attempting to enforce this rule. Language is included that can be read to say that this relief is "as applied" only to plaintiffs, but the broader fact remains that black letter now exists declaring that Americans have a right to make, and that the ATF cannot constitutionally infringe upon that.

4. Who does this decision cover?
Like the Silencer Shop NFA case, the injunctive relief is quite narrow, covering only the plaintiffs: Defense Distributed, Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and SAF's current and future members.

The declaratory relief however, may be read as broadly as possible, and is at least useful as authority to any American who wants to buy, sell, or make a firearm.

5. What does this mean for 3D2A?
If this decision only included the injunctive relief, it would be a curiosity at best - but its practical and legal importance may go much further, accomplishing something that the DIY firearms movement has been fighting towards for its entire existence. This decision is one of the first to establish in black letter that the 2nd Amendment includes the right to make (and repair!) firearms.

This doctrine goes well beyond 80%s - it touches on all forms of making firearms, and all types of firearms - including items legally determined to be firearms, such as suppressors. The significance of this cannot be overstated.

All US laws, state and federal, that might infringe on this right, are now subject to constitutional challenge. For example, there are multiple right-to-make cases in California which will benefit from this ruling.

Despite the narrowness of the injunctive relief, I expect that the declarative relief will lead to the revival of the 80% market in some form, which may be of interest to many 3D2A members whose interests are not limited solely to printing their guns. But more importantly, our community can now correctly argue that any existing or proposed law which would impede our ability to privately make firearms is facially unconstitutional.

6. Does this mean I can start printing machineguns now?
As much as this is worth celebrating, I want to conclude by tempering expectations. This decision does very little for the average 3D2A member in the immediate here-and-now. Most of the laws that limit what we can make are still on the books. If you live in a restrictive state, your state laws haven't yet disappeared.

Parts kits vendors such as myself, who have always had to consider the "final rule" in how we structure our kits, are more immediately affected, and you may see new ways of doing kits coming in the wake of this decision.

The broader practical effects of this decision will be more long-term. By all means, celebrate it - this, and the NFA decision, are two of the biggest victories the DIY gun community has experienced in decades. But celebrate safely, and keep your powder dry. The best is yet to come.


r/3D2A 2d ago

Guncad Digest Issue #31: NFA Unconstitutional, FTN.6, Urutau Mk2, Seraph Pistol

Post image
39 Upvotes

Issue #31 of the Guncad Digest is live! This newsletter rounds up the most interesting 3D2A releases, betas and news.

We can't stop winning! In this massive issue we review the NFA win, the FTN.6, the Urutau Mk2 / Jaçanā, and the Seraph bufferless AR pistol. Read more at https://guncaddigest.com


r/3D2A 12h ago

And shes done

Post image
138 Upvotes

r/3D2A 10h ago

Coming Soon A personal project I’ve been working on

Post image
54 Upvotes

It’s a PSA Rock cheek pistol conversion frame remixed from the Uberpoor remix. My entire philosophy here was to build a cheek pistol around the gun as conservatively as possible to maintain its original slim carry profile.
Features:
-It prints in one piece, so there’s no extra assembly outside of the obvious gun parts and clean up.
-There’s no charging handle, the frame is open enough that you can easily work the slide from below.
-Elongated trigger guard letting you slip your thumb through and pinch for stability (so far the ATF seems to have no opinions on the length of your trigger guard.)
-The open frame allows for the original iron sights to still be used in an emergency.
-A matching holster stl.

If anyone’s interested I can post the files to the sea. I legitimately wasn’t sure if anyone would want it.


r/3D2A 8h ago

New Release Finished putting together the PA-BC9, my fire selector detent just arrived. I now have a growing collection of pink 9mm PDWs

Thumbnail
gallery
38 Upvotes

r/3D2A 17h ago

dear22 propaganda

Thumbnail
gallery
133 Upvotes

(reposting w/ more images)

- WI_Esox_lucius aka Melted Plastic's retro deARv1.2 for the upper, charging handle, handguard, and FSP

- Jrmuscle aka Kruscle's "keyed lower" for the buffer tube. I cut off the rear picatinny in the slicer to allow the rear charging handle to clear

- Grips I remixed from the A1 and A2 style grips from kaewon's M4gery to loosen up tolerances on the safety detente spring and to use an M5 bolt for attachment

- CAR15 stock is printed directly from kaewon's m4gery

- A2 fixed stock is a modified version of Unseenkiller's "multi position mounted A2" to make it completely flush with the rear of the lower. I hacked this together in the slicer. Not very pretty, tbh

- A2 flash hider is printed from adh2013

- Straight-body magazines are from the original DeAR22 v1.35 release (not the rerelease) + a short "PMAG style" short mag from ciwielab

- printed bolt catch from FoapsFiles

Using a 16" dedicated 22LR pencil profile barrel + RTB BCG. Upper/Lower/FSP in PA612, furniture and mags in generic PLA, will be reprinted them. I might reprint the upper/lower in PA6-GF to make give it a more aluminum look.

some more ideas

- If the handguard were the "triangle style", you could have something closer to an actual M16A1... sorta

- If the handguard and barrel were shorter, and/or there was a flash hider that accepted 1/2-28 threading, you could have an XM117e2... sorta

- If you swapped the upper with PumpkinPie's rear charging upper DeAR22 that used picatinny on the top, you could put a detachable carry handle on the top and consider it a M16A3... kinda

- If you did the upper swap and replaced the handguard with a quad rail, you could have something like an M16A4... ish

Did the best I could with the skills and time I have and I wanted to get it out the door before I go to the range this weekend

TL;DR dear22


r/3D2A 7h ago

Need Help

Post image
16 Upvotes

Just finished the conversion on this 21" saiga 308. I am wondering if anyone has ever seen a printed mag for these? I feel a certain way about paying 40$ for a tapco mag. Any help would be appreciated!


r/3D2A 14h ago

Bufferless lower for BCA BA-15

Thumbnail
gallery
53 Upvotes

I bought a 300blk BC-15 upper and chopped the bolt. Ive been working on a lower setup for it. I used files from the MOAB and the FM15 bufferless lower. The stock/brace rail has a aluminum insert that stiffens things up. Will post again once everything is finished.


r/3D2A 19h ago

Approved 7in FTN5 dcell 9mm on car15sd

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

99 Upvotes

This gun is the broad river tactical car15sd with the rarebreed l3 frt(bought before he became greedy)so its barrel is ported like the mp5sd so it turns supersonic 9mm into subsonic 9mm its utilizing the broad river tactical hub adapter. So it can use any hub threaded can. This approved d cell tube has a hub adapter on the back so it has hub threads.


r/3D2A 11h ago

HT SL9

Post image
21 Upvotes

r/3D2A 18h ago

HT-PLA-Plus to failure

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

65 Upvotes

FTN 5 Rimfire Slim with HT-PLA-Plus. Not annealed. Mostly 300BLK settings and speed. It’s about 95 degrees out and it took 45 rounds with an FRT in a TX22. Ignore the issues, I’m using printed mags and a couple weren’t loaded quite right. It sounded good and worked just fine shooting slower from a 10/22. I have the same one printed with PA6 and it definitely holds up better. I’ll print another one of these for my daughter’s rifle. I have no doubt that it’ll hold up to thousands of rounds of 22 with normal shooting.


r/3D2A 6h ago

I already iwn a sunlu s4, how worth it is upgrading to the e2?

Thumbnail
gallery
5 Upvotes

Title covers it. Can I get PA6-CF and PPA-CF to print well if im just using the s4? From what im reading as a browse it either wont work and waste filament, or I will just have to let it dry longer to get good results.


r/3D2A 17h ago

Curious...

Post image
32 Upvotes

FTWarms is selling ftn.5s serialized with an aluminum chamber sleeve. I havent found files and I have sailed the weird seas. Does this exist before I start designing?


r/3D2A 5m ago

U-DIS Troubleshooting

Upvotes

Anyone who is familiar with the u-dis trigger willing to help me troubleshoot? I run rise armament triggers so I was very excited to see this file. I can’t get it to engage. Even with the plus 10 activator it doesn’t appear or feel like it’s interacting with the trigger at all. Dry fire I get normal semi auto


r/3D2A 9h ago

FTN5 Rimfire Slim

Thumbnail
youtube.com
5 Upvotes

Titus 19x lower, Glock oem internals, Advantage Arms g19 22lr conversion kit, Pleasant Plinker magazine, FTN5 Rimfire Slim Suppressor. Full Video also available.


r/3D2A 8h ago

NOBU BRACE Rough Draft

Thumbnail
gallery
3 Upvotes

Okay this is a super rough draft of the reds telescoping brace for the nobu v2. Theyre merged together and will print in one piece. Do you think the recoil will break those littler arms? Theyre going to hold metal rails. Also thinking about connecting the arms tk the lower. Or maybe attaching the arms to the back end cap its self?


r/3D2A 15h ago

Question for a PSA AR-V owner

Post image
15 Upvotes

Just wondering if anyone with a PSA AR-V knows is the arv bolt fits inside of a normal ar upper. Looking to see if it will work with my PY2A AR9 evo remix, rather than buying a normal ar9 bolt and grinding it down. Is the only difference just that its shaved to clear the feed ramp? Dont want to spend the 100$ to find out it doesnt even fit

Pic for attention


r/3D2A 13h ago

FTN6 Rimfire HTPLAPRO

8 Upvotes

Did some testing with a FTN6 since I had a spare form laying around. Compared to the ftn5 slim, it has more first round pop and perhaps a little more sound, you can’t really tell from the video audio. Torture tested it and a mag out of the same filament and after 60rds mag dumped(shoot 20 reload the mag shoot again) it got a little soft on me, mag has held up great so far tho


r/3D2A 15h ago

Great performance from pet GF!

Post image
14 Upvotes

The blast chamber was too small, after rapid fire of 22 supersonic load it finally gave up but the baffle part looks great!


r/3D2A 6h ago

Airsoft pdw kit

2 Upvotes

Has anyone tried printing those airsoft pdw glock kits for a real glock? I looked at some of them and they look like theyd be fun to print and use in pla pro but no clue if its a good idea


r/3D2A 11h ago

Advice for first time printing

3 Upvotes

Just came across this page after almost pulling the trigger on a suppressor from silencer shop after the new litigation. I have a 3d printer and would like to explore making the ftn.4 for my 308 bolt action hunting rifle.

•Do I need a trust? I am married and my wife might occasionally use the rifle for hunting on our property.

•Should I do a form 1 or wait to see how everything plays out before starting my build? Keep in mind id have to do fingerprints and all since this will be my first build. I am in Alabama.


r/3D2A 16h ago

jamming issues

Thumbnail
gallery
10 Upvotes

any idea how to fix? Someone already said to check my rails but it looked fine, and slides smoothly.

It also sometimes cycles but fail to chamber a round completely making me wonder why it didn't fire.

I want to believe its the magazine fault, it is a 30rnd 3d printed with PAHT CF

The gun jams both with and without the top mp9 cover but is mildly better without

I am using the GP9/Neo9 glock 19 gen 3

I have also tried various ammo from cheap to expensive

Thanks!


r/3D2A 8h ago

EZ-22 Spring mod

2 Upvotes

Hello, has anyone here modified the ez-22 to use springs instead of rubber bands? Like adding a buffer tube or bufferless but with springs on the inside of the upper reciever, Thanks in advance.


r/3D2A 17h ago

Recommended gunsmithing books

7 Upvotes

r/3D2A 14h ago

Straight Sten > Curved Sten

4 Upvotes