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A 3-D printer from MakerBot Industries is on display at CES 2014 in Las Vegas. A 3D printer can create a physical object from a computer model. (Patrick T. Fallon / Bloomberg News)
During the summer of 2012, Cody Wilson was hanging around J & J, a car repair shop run by two clumsy guys in their late twenties. The Austin warehouse was cluttered with cylinder blocks, car parts and boxes of pelicans that never seemed to have been opened, but the 24-year-old man came at will, with access to workshop machines.
his second year at the law faculty of the University of Texas to learn how to use a 3D printer. Familiar with the South's strong gun culture since his Scouting years in Arkansas, he soon began to wonder if he could create the first fully functional 3D printed firearm.
Wilson was not convinced that it was feasible. The technology was new and the printable materials were brittle and plastic. But Wilson was motivated by curiosity, making the assumption that he could design a printable weapon and build a platform for users to download gun plans without government regulation
"Even the magic of 3D printing fascinated me". remembering when he removed the first functional plastic part of the printer. "He had an unusual polymer, a fleshy feel and a silicate structure that had to be washed.All the traps of some kind of extraterrestrial birth."
Wilson admired the object. The screw, the buffer tower, the gripping space. They all had a perfect resolution, he said. "It's the devil of this technology.They can do things that have the quality of the machine."
Wilson drove to West Texas and learned to assemble a firearm, permutant in its printed part – a green lower receiver. He pulled the low-power AR-15 into the ground five or six times before it broke. Wilson presented the achievement on YouTube.
Convincing Americans that 3D printing rifles were a worthwhile effort turned out to be a challenge, said Wilson, who had begun fundraising. Its dark investor base was mostly made up of 3D printer enthusiasts and several gun rights advocates. Firearm owners could already own several guns. Why do they need new prints?
Green lower receiver for the AR-15 printed by Cody Wilson in November 2012. (Cody Wilson)
Less than two weeks elapsed before Adam Lanza, 20, opened fire Sandy Hook Elementary School, shooting at 26 people before turning his gun on himself. Suddenly, the interest and his efforts changed.
"After Sandy Hook, everything was back, a kind of breed condition: Is there a gun control in America or a 3D print of firearms?" "These things become about the red team, the blue team after a while," Wilson said.
With national interest stung, Congress and the Obama administration intervened, leading a nationwide crackdown on possession of firearms. Citing corporate responsibility, websites have taken firearms files and online community forums have removed gun owners. The Senate pleaded for tougher laws and introduced the Manchin-Toomey amendment in January 2013, asking for background checks on most gun sales. The bill failed three months later.
Inspired by Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, Wilson and his friends set out to create an open source platform
"We wanted to be the weapons wiki". Defcad.com, an unregulated file-sharing site, launched, which became the first community of firearms in 3D
A printable pistol was launched online, called "Liberator", in April 2013. (Cody Wilson) [19659016] The "Liberator" test, his first fully printed pistol, was completed at the end of April 2013, during his second year exams. He dropped out of the program the same week and downloaded his design files for ghost weapons, no serial number firearms. In a few days, there have been more than 100,000 downloads. In May, Wilson told Alex Jones, of Infowars, who promoted various conspiracy theories, that the State Department had sent him an email to request that the files be removed. The department alleged that by downloading a weapon plan, which constituted an export under the International Arms Traffic Regulations (ITAR), Wilson was in violation of federal law. With 30 days to respond to government requests, Wilson removed the files from defcad.com, and sued the US government for violating his right to freedom of expression.
Cody Wilson, founder of Defense Distributed. (Cody Wilson)
What frustrated Wilson was that the government was trying to prevent him from giving knowledge.
"It's not that I'm nihilistic about it – I know I can not control progress, but it's the utopia of the present," Wilson said. saying a romantic political. "Well, it could happen something that I can not anticipate! That's what inspires a bunch of burnouts like me."
He understood that knowledge could be used for radical purposes. Still, he said, there was no way to "violate" his idea. In the public domain, the drawings were "everyone and nobody," he said.
At the time, it was a pipe dream, but he hoped that he had an affair.
[ -D Printers Could Test Gun Control Efforts]
Joined by the Second Amendment Foundation, Wilson spent five years in court. In an unlikely turnaround, the federal government settled on June 22nd. It was a narrow victory for First Amendment fans, falling under an administration generally perceived as hostile to freedom of expression.
Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, surprised the government after several years of struggle. . "The government can no longer effectively ban guns in America because anyone can download the code and make a firearm in their own home," he said. He was expecting to be content with a moral defeat, comforting himself to imagine the state department responsible for the chore of regulating weapons on the Internet.
"This is a disturbing 180 degree turn of the state department," said Adam Skaggs of the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. "This will make it much easier for dangerous people, otherwise prohibited from obtaining firearms."
Skaggs, like many opponents of gun violence, accused the Trump administration of accused him
A spokesman for the state department however told the Washington Post that it was a voluntary settlement agreed between the two parties. The regulation of June 29, a copy of which was given to The Post, comes during a transfer of supervision from the State Department to the Department of Commerce.
[Three ways in which a 3D printer may one day save your life]
In 2010, when Barack Obama was president, the departments began a review of the US ammunition list. Under the proposed regulation, the State Department would continue to administer the export of military firearms, ammunition and heavy artillery under the ITAR. Commercially available firearms and related manufacturing technology would be transferred to the control of trade. "The proposed regulation would eliminate the ITAR requirements at issue in this case," said the ministry spokesman.
The Trump administration made progress in deregulating gun exports.
Meanwhile, the manufacture of weapons away from 3D printing. According to Adrian Bowyer, a retired engineer, 3D printers are not an appropriate technology for the manufacture of weapons. The key element of a gun is that it is cylindrical and symmetrical in rotation. 3D printers are also limited to the materials available, and those working with metals do not give the best results.
Bowyer said that if he had an interest in making weapons, he would manufacture them with conventional tools, such as a lathe. "3D printers are expensive, so even then, the end result will probably not be as strong as a 200-year-old technology."
Because there has been a proliferation of weapons to fire built with DIY kits obtained online, the defenders of the control of arms maintained that the weapons printed in 3D are a future threat. Mr Finkler said that when the printing technology becomes more reliable and more affordable – which he thinks will come – this will have dangerous consequences for public safety. "Climate change does not affect us today, but people can be concerned about the future," he said. For now, however, the unfinished 80 percent DIY gun is gaining momentum.
[This start-up will 3D print your house … for $10,000]
The Wilson website is expected to be online again on August 1st. Throughout the litigation, he has developed a mine of other models of printable weapons. Assembly of AR-15 and AR-10
The regulation of small arms will be the obstacle of the future. Several states have introduced legislation increasing control, but with the proposed ITAR amendments, Wilson should be able to publish all his plans.
"[Code] is the essence of expression," he said. "It meets all the demands of speech – it's artistic and political, you can manipulate it, and it needs human involvement to become something else." He added that a digital file is a weapon, but only in the non-legal sense. "You can not characterize 16 lines of code as" a gun. "She does not want to become anything;"
Wilson savored that he's pioneered in American control policy firearms.
"Ghost weapons are what has allowed me to get where I am," he said. "My contribution is to create the hyperbole of which speak the politicians. Now the public can access it.
Read more:
Here's How We Save Lives of Armed Violence
Small Student-Led Rallies Support Firearms Law
Range of Firearm Control Measures , Johns Hopkins study finds
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