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3D Printed Gun Maker Cody Wilson Defends Open Source Freedom
Lucas123 (935744) writes "Cody Wilson, the 26-year-old former law school student who published plans for printing 3D guns online, disputed claims by universities and government agencies that his thermoplastic gun design is unsafe. Wilson claims the agencies that tested the guns did not build them to spec. In a Q&A with Computerworld, he also addressed why he's continuing to press regulatory agencies to allow him to offer the plans again for upload after being ordered to take them down, saying it's less about the Second Amendment and more about the implications of open source and the digital age. "If you want to talk about rights, what does it mean to respect a civil liberty or civil right? Well, it means you understand there are social costs in having that right; that's why it deserves protection in the first place," he said. Wilson is also planning to release other gun-related project, though not necessarily a CAD design."
A first gen product using revolutionary technology and people are whining about it being unsafe? It's like complaining that the Model T didn't have airbags.
I think they are missing the point entirely. 3D printing will only become more sophisticated, using stronger materials and will be faster. People will be able to manufacture devices that are currently controlled or are so specialized that it hasn't occurred to the Feds to control them.
This is not about a plastic guns, this is about a paradigm shift that is no less momentous than VHS and later MP3s.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
This is not what the world needs - i.e. an easy way to make an unregulated *weapon* - i.e. an object designed to kill. This is not about open source, or anything else that Cody Wilson claims; it's about the *result* of his actions id these his designs are used to proliferate more *weapons*. America already experiences 33-35,000 gun deaths every year. America is FOURTH in gun deaths, worldwide - after Thailand, Colombia and Nigeria.Isn't that enough? Do we want to make guns even easier to obtain?
Project forward ten years, when 3D printers are far less expensive, and gun designs have been perfected. It's trivial to consider the new kinds of concealable (and undetectable) weapons that could be made via 3D printers.
Instead of arguing this point, we need to make it very clear that anyone making or distributing 3D gun models should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. If there isn't a law, make one - make TEN! I don't care.
It's sickening to hear pro-gun people talk about "freedom" and "self-defense", when they seem not one bit to care about the thousands killed by guns, and ironically attempt to make a self-defense argument for their position when it's the nearly unabated spread of weapons in America enabled by the terrorist NRA leadership; their Congressional whores; and, their gun-manufacturing overlords.
If Cody sends out one more 3D plan, jail him for 10 years! People who want to be free of gun deaths have rights, too!
We have many rights under the US constitution, but having the right and choosing when and how to exercise that right are two very different things. The constitution permits and protects a great many anti-social activities, yet I don't believe the founding fathers were attempting to promote anti-social behavior. They simply recognized that to fully protect beneficial behavior there was a need to make the safeguard as wide as possible.
It is a mistake to think the impact is restricted to the United States. This is a man who said "We're so dissatisfied in participating in traditional politics, that we're looking for other kinds of projects that are still innately political and contest what can be done in political terms."
There is no meaningful restriction on access to guns in the US. And were any restriction to come into effect, it is likely to be on where guns can be carried not on whether you can own one. The real impact of these weapons will therefore be felt by those in other countries - countries Cody Wilson has likely never visited let alone lived in.
Look people, this is NOT a 2A issue, this is a 1A issue. When does censorship stop? Why can't gun plans be published?
What if after some future election it became illegal to publish plans for IUD contra-ceptives without a licence after some person posts plans for a 3D printed one. Then for a research physician to get published in a medical journal he'd need permission from the government. How about that? How is that different?
How would you feel about needing to obtain a goverenemt license to publish anything about crytographic code? Where would that stop? Could you teach your kids how to make a Ceasar cipher, or would you go to jail for that under a national security gag-order.
He is publishing plans. This is a 1A issue.
I'll supply the parts list.
1 drill press. .25 ID black pipe.
.25 ID black pipe cap.
.25 rimfire round.
.25 chamber reamer. (optional)
1 vice, mounted in the drill press.
1
1
1 roofing nail.
1 drill to match the roofing nail diameter.
1
1
1 hammer.
Maybe someone else will post how to put it together, though if you can't figure it out you might want to stop. To make a legal gun (not an 'other gun') you should add a handle, trigger, mechanical hammer and safety.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Disagree. The US got the first amendment right. And you got the second amendment wrong.
Owning a firearm has nothing to do with essential personal freedoms or rights of the individual to exist in a free state. The only justification for it is to protect oneself from infringement on said freedoms, but that can just as easily be done through strong laws and a properly functioning government.
Again, I would point to the US as the prime example of why the second amendment does absolutely nothing to help you secure any of your primary freedoms, since they are being violated ALL THE TIME by your government, but I don't see anyone successfully taking up arms against them.. and I find the concept that citizens with a few guns could hold their own against the american military-industrial complex a bit of a farce to begin with.
All the second amendment gets your country is the highest per-capita gun violence rate in the western world. It hasn't gotten you anything else.
Seriously? For the most part, someone who is not a convicted felon or diagnosed as suffering from mental illness can buy a gun in a gun shop. The others can (illegally, but apparently with some ease) buy a gun at a gun fair.
Here's an NRA guide by state
Well, of course you can look at it that way, but absent the constitution or another social contract you have only the state of nature - where life is nasty, brutish and short.
Certainly you could say we have many rights protected under the constitution, but really it's just semantics; the rights exist but to fully enjoy the benefits that flow therefrom might require discretion over which rights we exercise and when and how we do so.
The second amendment was written by people who had just violently expelled a tyrannical government. The only plausible explanation is that they intended for the "militia", meaning all able bodied males, to be able to violently expel the government they were creating when it turned tyrannical.
This is just someone who wants attention. Guns with plastic barrels are junk, worse even than low-end Saturday Night Specials. You can get a cheap gun for under $100 in the US. (Yes, the Raven is a crappy gun, but it's still better than anything made on an extruder-type 3D printer.)
This is not the cutting edge of weapons design. Guns with aimbots. are the cutting edge. Right now, they're expensive, around $10K, but they will get cheaper.