The wrong fight at the wrong time
Seattle is the kind of place where the trans community is supposed to feel safe. It’s home turf and yet it was anti-trans violence in Seattle which led to the creation of this site.
Members of our community were being viciously attacked. Brain bleeds. This wasn’t happening in a red state. It wasn’t in a place where the hostility was written into the law. These attacks were happening in one of the most liberal cities in the country.
When they defended themselves with pepper gel, the non-lethal option we’re often told to reach for first, it wasn’t enough. The injuries were serious.
We built this site because we looked at these attacks and understood something had changed. The calculation that non-lethal options are sufficient deserved to be questioned. We wanted to make sure anyone ready to question it had somewhere to go.
We are writing this now because that necessity is under threat, and some of that threat is coming from people who are supposed to be on our side.
The criminalization of knowledge
Yesterday, Governor Bob Ferguson signed HB 2320 into law.
This is a foolish and dangerous law. It will make our community less safe. The people celebrating it have either not considered the long term implications, or tacitly approve of the inevitable outcomes.
The law prohibits the manufacturing of firearms and certain components using 3D printers or CNC milling machines. It prohibits possession of digital firearm manufacturing code with intent to distribute or manufacture using those tools. And here is where the language does something that should trouble anyone who believes in the principle that a person must do a thing before the law may punish them for it: the law constructs criminal intent from the mere possession of information.
For now at least, you can still legally own the Anarchist Cookbook. It contains detailed instructions for manufacturing explosives. Courts have refused, consistently, to criminalize it because the First Amendment has always held that the state may not punish you for knowing something.
The First Amendment does not permit the government to criminalize the possession of information based on its potential for misuse. You simply know a thing. You have not done a thing. The law has always waited for the act.
HB 2320 introduced a different standard. The act of manufacturing is already illegal under existing Washington State law. This law does not close a gap. What it does is establish a predicate of inferred intent, asking us to trust that inferred intent will be applied evenhandedly, across communities, by whoever holds power.
We should ask ourselves: who decides intent? And against whom will that determination fall hardest?
These are not abstract questions. Vague intent standards are not neutral instruments. They are intensely and intentionally discretionary. History is patient, consistent, and clear: discretionary enforcement lands hardest on the communities that power already regards with suspicion.
This law does not expire when the current administration does. The intent standard it creates will be administered by whoever holds power next. We have seen what that looks like. We don’t have to imagine the potential for abuse. It’s on our news nightly.
Everytown for Gun Safety called this a landmark bill. Their president said 3D-printed guns allow criminals to make a firearm “with the push of a button.” A Moms Demand Action volunteer said it would “undoubtedly make our communities safer.”
We would ask: which communities? Because the community we represent did not appear to factor into that calculation at all.
Manufacturing a receiver without a federal firearms license has been illegal in Washington State for years. That law exists. It works. This law does not strengthen it. It adds a layer of legally actionable suspicion on top of it, and hands enforcement of that suspicion to whoever is in charge.
Refusing to be prey.
Trans people in the United States are being treated as threats. That is not hyperbole. It is a description of accumulated legislative weight, executive action, and sustained political rhetoric which is deployed openly, methodically, and with explicit judicial endorsement.
The people doing this are not hiding their intentions. We should not soften ours.
Our existence is not a political question, our humanity is not a concession to be made, and our right to defend both is non-negotiable.
When the state treats a minority community as a target class, it does not only create danger from the state itself. It creates a permissive environment for private violence. It signals to their brown shirts that this community is unprotected, that violence against it will be tolerated, that the normal social contract does not apply. We have watched this happen in real time. Our community has suffered for it.
An armed community is harder to victimize and we refuse to be easy victims.
Consider what armed self-defense means when you cannot safely walk into a gun store. When your identification has been invalidated by state law. When the official responsible for that invalidation is the same official who processes your carry application. That is not a hypothetical. That is Kansas, today. It will be more states tomorrow.
The ability to manufacture, acquire, and carry firearms outside of systems that have been weaponized against us is not a luxury. For some members of our community, it is the difference between having options and having none.
“A Winchester rifle should have a place of honor in every Black home, and it should be used for that protection which the law refuses to give.” – Ida B. Wells
The pattern we ignore at our peril
Washington State’s bad law does not exist in isolation. It is one piece of a larger pattern that deserves to be named.
Democrats enthusiastically embraced state power as the instrument of safety, and then forgot to ask what would happen when the state stopped being theirs.
Blue state municipalities built Flock camera networks with good intentions and local concerns. They did not ask who would control that infrastructure next.
ICE answered that question for them. In Washington State alone, eight cities handed CBP direct access to their data despite the state’s sanctuary laws. Red state law enforcement used the same data to identify people crossing state lines seeking abortions in blue states.
These networks have become powerful tools of oppression, turned against the very citizens who paid for them.
The ATF Form 4473 is required for every dealer firearm purchase in the United States. It currently asks for the buyer’s sex. The current administration has announced their plan to require that field to reflect sex assigned at birth.
In most red states, a trans person can buy a firearm privately, person to person, without a dealer and without a 4473. That option exists. In Washington State, in California, in New York, every transfer goes through a dealer. Every purchase generates a federal record. For trans people in blue states, there is no anonymous acquisition. The form is inescapable.
In a state where every firearm purchase already generates a federal record, this law adds one more layer of exposure for a vulnerable community that cannot afford it.
What you can do to help.
HB 2320 is law in Washington State. That fight is over for now. But that bill was always a template, and templates travel.
New York is already moving in the same direction. Other states will follow before the public debate catches up. Various civil rights groups are watching this new encroachment on rights closely, and so are we.
If you are in Washington State. Know what this law actually says. Possession of digital manufacturing files with inferred intent is now a criminal matter. Be thoughtful about what you store, what you download, and what you share. The law is vague by design. Vague laws are enforced selectively. Act accordingly.
If you are in any other state. Find out now whether similar legislation has been introduced. Do not wait for it to reach the Governor’s desk. Contact your legislators early. The window to stop this is before it has momentum, not after.
Follow our socials. Keep watching this page. We will keep writing about these bills when and where they are introduced. Our safety may depend on it.
Know your state. Know your rights. Our guides can help. If we don’t have a guide for your state and you need help, reach out.
Please read our blog post on Constitutional Carry (found here). Avoid creating unnecessary paper trails.
Build your community. Train with people you trust. Invest in the kind of mutual capacity that does not depend on institutions that have already shown us where we stand.
Spread the word. Share this post and our resources with members of our community who might find it useful. That’s genuinely the most helpful thing right now. In order for a community resource like this to be valuable, that community has to know of its existence. For this project to succeed, we need your help getting the word out.
Have professional expertise? If you’re familiar with your state’s gun laws, especially if you’re a lawyer, dealer, gunsmith, or firearms instructor, we want your help to make sure we get your state and all of our guidance right. Get in touch. Your input is extremely valuable to us.
Want to contribute? As we’ve mentioned before, this website represents a significant and continual time investment from a team of people. Contributions are very much appreciated but not expected. Please check out our support section for fun merch and other ways to help out financially.
“The only limit to the oppression of government is the power with which the people show themselves capable of opposing it.” – Errico Malatesta
Further Reading
Adafruit’s Blog (found here) – the Maker Community’s take on why this law burdens lawful users without stopping determined actors.
Our own Constitutional Carry guidance (found here) – Understanding when and why to avoid optional permit systems.
Benn Jordan’s amazing series (found here and also here) – A deep exploration of Flock’s technology, how it takes hold in communities, the intense privacy risks it raises, and its security flaws.
Wendover Productions’ video (found here) – A further exploration of Flock’s technology and how ICE and other law enforcement agencies abuse access to local camera systems.