We all know how anti-gun California is. As a result, it was never a surprise that they’d crack down on privately made firearms. It wasn’t enough to mandate a serial number be obtained, which was already bad enough, but people could still pursue the hobby lawfully. No, they went full hog and banned all of it, even possessing the files.
And then they started suing people who provided files for anyone to download, apparently thinking that shouldn’t be allowed since California is so important. After all, they try to dictate plenty to the rest of the country through their own state laws, so why should this be any different?
The answer is that, unlike a lot of other people, gun folks are notoriously contrarian when it comes to infringing on their rights. As a result, California is now getting sued.
Alexander Holladay (known online as CTRLPEW), CTRLPEW, LLC, Centurion Partners Group, LLC, Jonathan Adams, and Trey Bickley are now suing the state of California. They allege that the state is infringing on their First and Second Amendment rights and assert claims of extraterritorial overreach and retroactivity.
Mr. Holladay is a designer and author of numerous CAD files for guns. Centurion Partners Group, LLC is a federally licensed firearms manufacturer (Type 07 FFL) that uses CTRLPEW resources for lawful business purposes. Mr. Bickley and Mr. Adams are Florida residents who receive, view, archive, and use the content. (Adams lawfully manufactured and possesses a Plastikov V4 firearm using CTRLPEW materials.)
The case is a § 1983 civil rights action seeking declaratory and prospective injunctive relief against the State of California. The plaintiffs are not asking the Florida federal court to interfere with the ongoing California state court enforcement action (People v. Gatalog Foundation Inc., et al.) or to block California from enforcing its laws against in-state manufacture, possession, sale, or distribution.
Instead, they are challenging the defendants’ extraterritorial application of two new California Civil Code provisions (effective 2026), §§ 3273.61 and 3273.625, to purely Florida-based speech and conduct:
- Publication of 3D digital models (STEP/STL files), written guides, photographs, political commentary, humor, and curation on the open internet from Florida.
- Receipt, viewing, archiving, discussion, repair, maintenance, and lawful use of that protected speech in Florida.
The plaintiffs argue that Holladay’s STEP/STL files are digital sculptures containing expressive 3D art, including geometry, aesthetics, and political satire. One example cited is the “Joshie Woshie 9,” a design intended to mock Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s crusade against homemade firearms. They contend that the files constitute commentary and parody, filled with cultural references. They emphasize that STLs are not G-Code and cannot be automatically printed into a firearm; the end user must run separate slicer software and make numerous choices to produce a physical object. The accompanying guides are also full of humor, quips, and political speech.
I’d argue that even if the files were G-Code and could be printed right there, they’d still constitute protected speech. The courts have long held that code is a form of speech, and I fail to see why this is somehow different than books like The Anarchist’s Cookbook–filled with dangerous information, but protected speech.
Still, Holladay’s case is essentially that his work is even more so, in part because they’re not workable files in and of themselves. Someone would need to take additional steps to make them usable code for printing, thus they shouldn’t be considered in the same category.
Plus, there’s the fact that California is trying to enforce its own laws on people who exist entirely on the other side of the country from it. Had Holladay set foot in California and broken the law, that would be one thing, but he didn’t. He’s living and doing his work in Florida, and this idea of trying to apply their law against printer files on the rest of us is an infringement on our right to keep and bear arms.
This lawsuit doesn’t try to interfere with those other case, probably because it’s worthwhile for those cases to continue on their own course, as that’s the one that will strike down this insane concept of banning possession of the files, or acting as if someone elsewhere in the country is responsible for what Californians do in violation of their own state’s laws.
Honestly, California needs to get slapped down. They need to get slapped down hard on this.
Here’s hoping.
Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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