Montana’s Right to Compute Act may be the most important pro-gun, pro-freedom law of the year—and it doesn’t mention guns once.
3d printed ghost gun iStock-Sven Loeffler
Montana just did something no other state has dared to do. On April 17, 2025, Governor Greg Gianforte signed the Montana Right to Compute Act (MRTCA) into law—cementing the right to own, use, and access computational tools as a constitutional liberty.
On paper, it’s a law about digital freedom. But read between the lines, and you’ll realize this may be the most significant state-level, pro-gun, pro-freedom victory in years.
Because in today’s world, the fight for the Second Amendment isn’t just happening in courtrooms—it’s happening in code, clouds, and 3D printers. #RightToCompute
Weaponizing Technology: The New Face of Gun Control
Gun controllers can’t stop Americans from building legal firearms at home—so they’ve found another route: choking off the tools, files, and knowledge needed to do it.
- DA Alvin Bragg pressured 3D printer companies like Creality to install firmware that blocks printing gun parts and censors cloud-based CAD files in 3D printers.
- The ATF and DOJ held closed-door meetings urging tech developers to implement software blocks, cloud file scans, and AI-based detection of “gun-shaped” files.
- A federal judge in New Jersey ruled that gun CAD files are “functional,” not expressive, meaning they don’t qualify as free speech under the First Amendment.
- DHS Admits to Monitoring 3D Printer Purchases by Americans with the help of Amazon, eBay, & PayPal
What do all of these efforts have in common? They target the digital tools, not just the firearms themselves.
Montana’s Law Flips the Script
Montana’s Right to Compute Act recognizes a simple but powerful truth:
Computation is expression. Files are property. Code is liberty.
Under MRTCA, any restriction on a citizen’s ability to use or share digital tools must pass strict scrutiny, the same rigorous legal test used to defend core constitutional rights like speech, religion, and—yes—the right to bear arms.
That means if the state (or any city within Montana) ever tries to:
- Ban CAD files
- Restrict 3D printing of firearm components
- Force firmware changes on printers
- Censor gun-related code or forums
They’ll need to prove it’s absolutely necessary, narrowly tailored, and in pursuit of a compelling state interest. In short, it becomes almost impossible to justify.
A Digital Second Amendment
Montana just quietly created what amounts to a Digital Second Amendment. Without naming guns, they’ve laid the foundation for:
- Protecting hobbyists who use 3D printers to legally build arms
- Shielding code-sharing platforms from activist prosecutors
- Preventing tech companies from being deputized as gun control agents
The same way gun owners fought back against red flag laws, bump stock bans, and universal background checks, we now have a blueprint to push back against digital disarmament.
And it couldn’t come at a better time. Because from John Lott to Defense Distributed, one truth keeps coming up: “3D printers mean an end to any gun control.”
Can’t Stop the Signal
The 3D printing community knows this fight well. CAD files are already decentralized. 3D Printers are cheaper than ever. Groups like The Gatalog and DEFCAD continue to innovate. The government can’t ban the signal—so now they’re trying to strangle the software, throttle the cloud, and turn every tool into a snitch.
But Montana just said no. By declaring computational tools a right, the state has sent a message: your printer, your code, your liberty.
A Call to Action for Free States
Montana planted the flag. Now it’s time for Texas, Florida, Arizona, and every liberty-loving state to do the same.
Just as we’ve built Second Amendment sanctuaries, it’s time for Digital Second Amendment sanctuaries—places where:
- Files aren’t crimes.
- Printers aren’t licensed.
- Code is not censored.
The Founding Fathers may not have foreseen the rise of 3D-printed guns, but they certainly understood the danger of centralized control over the tools of liberty.
Montana gets it.
Let’s make sure the rest of the country does, too.
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These printer software restriction efforts by our ELECTED congressional representatives are basically equivalent to requiring Word Processor programs to analyze what we are writing and POLITICALLY PRE-CENSOR “BAD SPEECH” that people in the government don’t like. Using the identical thinking as they do with the printer software, they would literally force the word processing software to REFUSE TO SAVE, EMAIL, OR PRINT any key words or phrases that are on their naughty list. Taken further, they could “AI” scan images in articles and do the same thing…PREVENT it ever being distributed. What if they’d had such technology available back during… Read more »
Yeah, ’cause bans really work… Has anyone ever, since the advent of the World Wide Web, NOT been able to find a copy of the Anarchist’s Cookbook?
Clever. Whoever wrote that bill was very forward thinking. Good on them for passing/signing.
Right on, well, I guess Montana is back on the move to list. Didn’t like the fact that at the time I moved to Oregoneistan 13 years ago, they had a demonkkkrat for governor that is why I moved here. Looks like Montana is starting to get it. First, stopping individual cites from making their own gun free zone rules, then adding constitutional carry and now this new law that really gives the feds the middle finger.
Right on Montana. Let’s end that no guns in a gun free school zone too!
Montana, another free state.
This is really good news, I plan on sending a message to my representatives in Georgia.
Thank you for the Tuesday feel-good story of the day!