California sues companies that sell code for making 3-D printed ghost guns

Sharon Bernstein, The Sacramento Bee on Feb 9, 2026

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Two Florida companies that provide computer code and designs for making 3-D printed guns and ammunition magazines are being sued by the state of California and the city of San Francisco, who say its products are allowing people to create illegal ghost guns.

The lawsuit, filed Friday in San Francisco Superior Court, named the Gatalog Foundation, Ctrl+Pew and three men tied to the companies and their websites, alleging they specifically targeted Californians by selling designs for unregistered firearms increasingly used in crimes.

“California faces a public safety crisis from the proliferation of unserialized, untraceable, and unsafe firearms — commonly called ghost guns — sweeping across the state,” the lawsuit said. A fast-growing subset of those weapons is made using 3D printers.

The websites provided computer code and step-by-step instructions to make firearms, machine gun conversion kits and accessories, the lawsuit said, in violation of California law. Ctrl+Pew, which the lawsuit said targeted California consumers, also solicited donations and sold merchandise.

“These defendants’ conduct enables unlicensed people who are too young or too dangerous to pass firearm background checks to illegally print deadly weapons without a background check and without a trace,” Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a news release about the lawsuit.

The lawsuit said the two websites not only offered code for 3D-printed versions of multiple firearms, but also mocked California gun regulations.

“Not for making guns,” a sticker provided with instructions on how to do just that by the company Ctrl+Pew says, the lawsuit alleges.

“10 rounds only,” says another sticker, mocking California’s restrictions on large capacity magazines, the lawsuit says.

In addition to the companies, the lawsuit brought civil charges against Florida residents David Holladay, Matthew Larosiere and John Elik, who were listed as officers of the Gatalog Foundation in Florida public records.

The three men were not immediately reachable for comment Monday, and an email sent to an address associated with Larosiere was returned as undeliverable.

The website for the Gatalog Foundation was down on Monday, but Ctrl+Pew — which the lawsuit alleged was operated by the same individuals and targeted California users — was offering downloads of 3-D printed guns and also selling Hawaiian-style shirts. The shirts were modeled on the website by a man wearing a military-style head and face covering while holding a gun.

Part of Ctrl+Pew’s name was defined on its website as “print every weapon.”

“They are making it easier to put guns in the hands of dangerous individuals, including those barred from owning a firearm,” San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu said in a news release. “We’re asking the Court to stop Gatalog’s illegal distribution of ghost gun blueprints, which makes us all less safe.”

Representatives for both Bonta and Chiu said the lawsuit was filed Friday but had not yet appeared in San Francisco Superior Court’s online records.

Last year, investigators arrested three men after finding a 3-D printing workshop for guns in the Yuba County town of Linda, just south of Marysville, according to previous Bee reporting.

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