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3D-printed gun advocate Cody Wilson resigns from Defense Distributed
Cody Wilson, the man behind the 3D-printed gun company Defense Distributed, has stepped down as CEO of the company. Paloma Heindorff, who has taken over as the chief executive, said in a press conference today that it was Wilson's decision to resign and he would no longer have any role at the company.
3D gun distributor Cody Wilson deported to the US
Authorities aren't wasting any time bringing Cody Wilson, the owner of 3D-printed gun maker Defense Distributed, back to the US. Taiwan officials deported Wilson to the US on September 22nd following his arrest a day earlier over his annulled legal status in the area. It wasn't clear where in the US Wilson was headed, although a Texas city is a possibility given the US arrest warrant issued for him in state over allegations he paid for sex with an underage girl.
3D gun publisher Cody Wilson was arrested in Taiwan
Cody Wilson, owner of Defense Distributed, a company currently involved in a legal battle over whether it can legally sell plans for 3D-printed guns, has been arrested in Taiwan, BuzzFeed News reports. Wilson was charged with sexual assault earlier this week for allegedly having sex with a 16-year-old girl in Austin, Texas. He was reportedly arrested today in Taipei after checking into a hotel.
Owner of 3D-printed gun company wanted on sexual assault charge
Cody Wilson, owner of Defense Distributed and at the center of lawsuits over the ability to sell plans for 3D-printed guns online, is now wanted by the US Marshals. Wilson has been charged with sexually assaulting a child in Texas, and Austin Police have said that his last known location is in Taipei, Taiwan. Wilson is accused of committing the sexual assault on a 16 year old in an Austin hotel on August 15th and paying her $500, after the two started talking on SugarDaddyMeet.com where he used the name "Sanjuro." Police said that he identified himself to the girl, and that surveillance footage from the hotel shows them together. During a press conference, the Austin Police said that Wilson had missed a planned flight back from Taiwan, and that they are putting together plans to arrest him if he does not come back and surrender. Last month Wilson said he would sell plans for the guns via his website and deliver them via email, USB stick or other file transfer methods, despite the efforts of state attorneys to stop him.
Texas company sells plans for 3D-printed guns despite ban
A judge may have extended a ban preventing Defense Distributed from publishing plans for 3D-printed guns, but that isn't stopping the company from finding loopholes to continue offering the weapons. Company owner Cody Wilson has started selling the plans to US customers through his website on his belief that the ban only rules out publishing the plans online, not selling them directly. Those who purchase the plans can receive them by email, secure file transfers or even USB thumb drives shipped by mail.
Judge extends ban on publication of 3D-printed gun designs
A federal judge in Seattle issued an injunction today that blocks Defense Distributed from publishing its 3D-printed gun designs online. The move extends a temporary ban issued last month and the injunction will remain in place until a lawsuit brought forth by a number of state attorneys general is resolved. Washington, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Oregon, Maryland and Washington, DC signed onto the suit last month in an effort to reverse a US Department of State settlement that allowed the 3D gun designs to be published online. Eleven additional states joined the lawsuit earlier this month.
Senators want Google and Facebook to block 3D-printed gun files
US authorities lost the legal battle that would prevent Defense Distributed from legally releasing its 3D-printed gun files, but social networks can still ban them from their platforms. Facebook is already blocking people from posting their blueprints in the form of Computer Aided Design (CAD) files on its website and on Instagram, and now a group of Senators are asking other tech giants to do the same thing.
Facebook is blocking links to 3D-printed gun files
Facebook is blocking links to sites that host 3D-printed gun files. The company has determined that such designs are not allowed under the regulated goods section of its community standards -- Facebook doesn't permit person-to-person gun sales.
More states join lawsuit to keep 3D-printed gun plans off the internet
On August 1st, Defense Distributed was set to upload designs of 3D-printed guns for the public to buy and download. But the day before, a Seattle judge temporarily blocked their release after seven states and Washington, DC sued the company and State Department. Today, eleven more states have joined the legal battle to stop the firearm plans from being sold online.
Seattle judge blocks release of designs for 3D-printed guns
Today U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik granted a temporary restraining order sought by eight state attorneys general and the District of Columbia to block the sale of designs for 3D-printed guns. Based on a settlement between Defense Distributed and the US Department of State, they could have gone on sale starting tomorrow, but now that is on hold. In both the House and Senate, bills were introduced today to block the sales, and this morning the President tweeted the plan "doesn't seem to make much sense!" The New York Times reports that in his ruling, Judge Lasnik said there are First Amendment concerns, but said the states had established a "likelihood of irreparable harm." State AGs argue that the Trump Administration's settlement "gives criminals and terrorists access to downloadable, untraceable and undetectable 3D-printed weapons." White House spokesperson Hogan Gidley said to the AP that the administration would "will continue to look at all options available to us to do what is necessary to protect Americans while also supporting the First and Second amendments."
States sue to block sale of 3D-printed weapon designs online
The fight to keep 3D-printed gun designs off of the web continues as a number of states said on Monday that they would be jointly suing the Trump administration, Reuters reports. In a press release, Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson said today that the states have requested an injunction to block online publication of the designs and have filed a lawsuit. Joining Washington in the endeavor are New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Oregon, Maryland and Washington, DC.
Arms control and free speech go to court over 3D-printed guns
Cody Wilson fundamentally altered the way we produce and distribute firearms in 2013 when his company, Defense Distributed (DD), first published the plans for a 3D-printed pistol, dubbed The Liberator, on its website. The State Department didn't take too kindly to this revelation and sent DD a letter demanding the instructions be removed as they violated a number of US Arms Export control laws. Now, two years later, Defense Distributed and the State Department are going to court over the matter in a lawsuit that potentially holds far-reaching implications for both the First and Second Amendments.
Liberator gun made with consumer 3D printer, plastic pistol fires nine shots successfully (video)
Defense Distributed's plan is to put the power of guns in the hands of every person with access to the internet and a 3D printer. Until now, however, we'd only seen the Liberator pistol built using an expensive industrial-grade printer -- despite the fact that the blueprints for gun have been downloaded by thousands of people who don't have access to such a high-end machine. One of those folks decided to put the Liberator in the hands of the printing proletariat by making it with a consumer-level Lulzbot A0-101 3D printer, a nail and some common screws. This new version, called the Lulz Liberator, differs from the original in that it's got a rifled barrel and uses metal hardware to hold it together (as opposed to printed plastic pins). Printing it took around two days and used about $25 worth of generic ABS material, and the pistol produced was fired successfully nine times, but its creator claims it could've shot more. It's still a far cry from a Glock or Beretta, of course, as the gun misfired several times, and removing spent shell casings required the use of a hammer. So, it's not quite ready for prime time, but it's one more bit of proof that the age of printed pistols is officially upon us. [Image Credit: Michael Guslick]
3D-printed firearm plans downloaded 100,000 times, State Department steps in
That didn't take long -- just days after its first test fire, the Liberator, a 3D-printed pistol designed by Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson, has caught the attention of the federal government. It's hardly a surprise: the arm's blueprints were downloaded more than 100,000 times since going live on DefCAD this week. It's not the amount of downloads that's causing trouble, though, it's who is downloading them. In a letter from the US State Department, Wilson was told that it's a violation of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations to "export any defense article or technical data for which a license or written approval is required without first obtaining the required authorization from the DDTC (Directorate of Defense Trade Controls)." The letter goes on to explain that these downloads legally count as exports under the law, telling Wilson to remove the plans from public access immediately. "That might be an impossible standard," Wilson told Forbes. "But we'll do our part to remove it from our servers." As it turns out, most of the gun's downloads were served via Mega, making full removal near impossible. Still, Wilson seems optimistic about the situation, explaining to Forbes that conversation will help mold the discussion on 3D printed weaponry. "Is this a workable regulatory regime? Can there be defense trade control in the era of the internet and 3D printing?" We're looking forward to discovering the answer ourselves.
The Liberator, the first completely 3D-printed gun, gets test-fired (video)
The (almost) all-plastic 3D-printed Liberator pistol was announced by Defense Distributed late last week, but with the gun's blueprints and construction details now live on the company's own DefCAD design site, it's also released a video taken during its testing. In front of a Forbes onlooker, the clip apparently shows a .380 caliber bullet being fired by the Liberator. The only non-plastic part of the design is a common nail, which acts as the firing pin. Defense Distributed's founder Cody Wilson has worked over a year on the project, apparently citing the one-shot pistols that were designed to be air-dropped over France during World War II as inspiration -- also called the Liberator. This modern version is, however, formed of 15 components made inside a Stratasys Dimension SST 3D printer. The video of the test shot and more details are right after the break.
