U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)- Cody Wilson had a goal. That goal is to make all gun control irrelevant. Starting on July 27th, 2018, his goal will come to fruition.
The Department of Justice has settled in a landmark case that will allow Defense Distributed to distribute the source files online for 3D printed guns up to .50 caliber. With 3D firearms printing becoming cheaper and better every day this changes the landscape of the 2A battle. The “ghost-gun” genie is indeed out of the bottle as 3D source files will now be free game for all to download.
In 2013 Wilson and Defense Distributed released the Liberator which was the world’s first 3D printed gun. Wilson named the Liberator after the famous single shot World War II pistol that the Allies dropped over Nazi-occupied France. Only a couple weeks after releasing the plans the government demanded that he pull them down from his site claiming the plans violated export regulations as defined in the International Trade in Arms Regulations (ITAR).
The government asserted that Wilson was exporting guns without a license. The government viewed the files that Wilson uploaded to the internet the same way as if he would have exported physical firearms to other countries. Wilson disagreed with this assertion and decided to sue the government on First Amendment grounds for the right to distribute the 3D printed files online for anyone to download.
The first set of lawyers that Wilson hired told him that the case was hopeless, and he would not be able to win. Wilson was unwilling to accept that verdict, so he fired his attorneys and hired new ones working with The Second Amendment Foundation who believed that he could win. It was a David vs. Goliath situation. The suit took five years and nearly a million dollars, but Wilson was vindicated.
The nonprofit Defense Distributed also makes the Ghost Gunner 2 CNC Machine which AmmoLand has reviewed in the past. The Ghost Gunner 2 is a mini CNC machine that lets the user mill out 80% lower receivers for the popular AR-15 and 80% 1911 pistols with just a click of a mouse. The Ghost Gunner 2 enables anyone to make a non-serialized gun in their basement. Defense Distributed started making the Ghost Gunner 2 for the purpose of funding the lawsuit against the DOJ. Defense Distributed has sold around 6,000 of the CNC machines nationwide.
In the settlement, the government also admits that semi-automatic rifles including the AR-15 are not inherently military weapons.
This admission is a blow to the false narrative pushed by some members of Congress and anti-gun groups that the AR-15 and other modern sporting rifles are “weapons of war.”
That acknowledgment could have massive ramifications throughout the country in states that banned modern sporting rifles through so-called “assault weapons bans.” Those bans are now on shaky legal ground thanks to the government admission about semi-automatic rifles in the settlement.
Cody Wilson, a self-proclaimed crypto-anarchist, told Wired he had planned to release the files no matter how the lawsuit went, if Hillary Clinton had have been elected president and decided to crack down on our Second Amendment rights as listed in the Constitution.
Wilson encourages people to download the files and make improvements. He sees the data as a starting point to something better. The 30-year-old took on the government and won a significant battle not only for our Second Amendment rights but also for our First Amendment rights.
Defense Distributed will distribute the files on the website, defcad.org. Wilson describes defcad.org as a GitHub (a software development site) for guns. Currently, the site lets users sign up for a mailing list to get notifications on site news.
AmmoLand has reached out to Wilson, whom we have interviewed for the site, but as of the time of this writing, Wilson has not returned our request for comment.
About John Crump
John is an NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. He is the former CEO of Veritas Firearms, LLC and is the co-host of The Patriot-News Podcast which can be found at www.blogtalkradio.com/patriotnews. John has written extensively on the patriot movement including 3%’ers, Oath Keepers, and Militias. In addition to the Patriot movement, John has written about firearms, interviewed people from all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and is currently working on a book on leftist deplatforming methods and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, on Facebook at realjohncrump, or at www.crumpy.com.