After Court Order, 3D-Printed Gun Pioneer Now Sells Pay-What-You-Want CAD Files (arstechnica.com)

CaptainDork writes: In a surprising announcement, Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson announced Tuesday that while he would continue to comply with a federal court order forbidding him from internationally publishing CAD files of firearms, he would also begin selling copies of his 3D-printed gun files for a "suggested price" of $10 each. The files, crucially, will be transmitted to customers "on a DD-branded flash drive" in the United States and won't be available as downloads.

Comments

I have no issue with this

[oldgraybeard]

Trying to hide knowledge never protected anyone from anything.

Just my 2 cents ;)

Yep - he is

[Okian Warrior]

What a Patriot. I'll bet he going to be protecting our freedoms real soon now.

Actually, he pretty-much is.

You don't see that because you're on the other side of the issue, on the side of speech you don't like.

We often say that freedom of speech means freedom for others to say things we don't like.

You don't like it, I get that.

Do you believe in free speech or do you believe in suppression of speech?

Re: Yep - he is

[DRJlaw]

Just about all of them, I can't list every single way nor am I 'rooting' either way. There's no explicit right to manufacture your own firearms, never was. Read it again Sam. And they meant muskets, militias, as initially written.

It's simply not the case that there are no restrictions on firearms manufacturing because of the 2nd amendment, though some would like to espouse that for their existing ideology. That's new law that doesn't exist yet.

Well then it's a good thing that this is only information about how to manufacture firearms, and it's governed by old law that says: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Wrong amendment, Buckaroo.

Re:Yep - he is

[blindseer]

What about my right to bear nuclear weapons? Isn't the government suppressing my rights by not selling me nukes?

This is a First Amendment issue. This is about the right to "keep and bear" documents and information. If you want the schematics on building a nuclear weapon then you can certainly find them on the internet, at your local library, and in book stores. If you want schematics on building a machine gun then I know where you can get them, the United States Patent Office. They also have schematics on building a handgun far more durable than what Defense Distributed is offering. This whole case is quite silly and it appears Cody Wilson is enjoying his 15 minutes of fame from it.

There's laws on building nuclear weapons, and on building handguns. This case is not about building either of those, these laws were not being challenged.

Re:Yep - he is

[ronaldbeal]

You cannot control an entire country and its people with tanks, jets, battleships and drones or any of these things. A fighter jet, tank, drone, battleship or whatever cannot stand on street corners. And enforce “no assembly” edicts. A fighter jet cannot kick down your door at 3AM and search your house for contraband. None of these things can maintain the needed police state to completely subjugate and enslave the people of a nation. Those weapons are for decimating, flattening and glassing large areas and many people at once and fighting other state militaries. The government does not want to kill all of its people and blow up its own infrastructure. These are the very things they need to be tyrannical assholes in the first place. If they decided to turn everything outside of Washington D.C. into glowing green glass they would be the absolute rulers of a big, worthless, radioactive pile of shit. Police are needed to maintain a police state, boots on the ground. And no matter how many police you have on the ground they will always be vastly outnumbered by civilians which is why in a police state it is vital that your police have automatic weapons while the people have nothing but their limp dicks. BUT when every random pedestrian could have a Glock in their waistband and every random homeowner an AR-15 all of that goes out the fucking window because now the police are out numbered and face the reality of bullets coming back at them. If you want living examples of this look at every insurgency that the U.S. military has tried to destroy. They’re all still kicking with nothing but AK-47s, pick up trucks and improvised explosives because these big scary military monsters you keep alluding to are all but fucking useless for dealing with them. --The above quoted from an anonymous source on the internet--

Re: Yep - he is

[DRJlaw]

It's not really a First Amendment issue though.

Why can't you shout "fire" in a theatre?

Censorious trope two. Who says that you can't shout "fire" in a theater, especially when it's true?

The Pentagon Papers case did not allow for suppression of true information where the consequences of that speech were "dire." The Federal government agreed that this information was not within the scope of ITAR and that it could not prohibit publication. The judge in issuing this very injunction admitted that "Regulation under the AECA means that the files cannot be uploaded to the internet, but they can be emailed, mailed, securely transmitted, or otherwise published within the United States."

Note: personally I support DD here, I'm just refuting the argument that it's a simple 1st Amendment issue.

Then why are you attempting to justify the outrage here using exception-to-the-first-amendment arguments?

Re:Yep - he is

[DRJlaw]

Can I get a recipe complete with required equipment list for the manufacture of LSD or methamphetamine off the internet too since all information is just so legal now?

Yes, you can. Or would you prefer detailed instructions direct from the U.S. government?

The preferred method is:

An alkali metal, preferably sodium, is oxidized with ferric nitrate in liquid ammonia to form the alkali metal amide, e.g. sodium amide. The dry acid H is added and after a few minutes the resulting alkali metal salt is mixed with the desired organic halogen compound R Hal. 2 to 10, preferably 3 to 5 atoms of alkali metal and 2 to mols, preferably 4 to 6 mols of the organic halogen compound are used per mol of acid.

The ammonia may be evaporated a few minutes after addition of the organic halogen compound. To isolate the compound I the reaction mixture is shaken between Water and ether and the aqueous phase filtered through a tale layer. The procedure which is then followed depends on the acid and the organic halogen compound used. The isolation of l-methyl-D-lysergic acid in pure, crystalline form is particularly simple, it being sufficient for the aqueous solution to be brought to a pH value of 4.5 to 5 with acetic acid. Otherwise, the aqueous solution may be evaporated to dryness and methanol poured over the dry residue, the inorganic salts and the small quantity of l-methyl-isolysergic acid present going into solution and the l-methyl-D-lysergic acid remaining undissolved.

HowStuffWorks provides another helpful description. Quick, call the police, because I've posted a mass of not-illegal information right here...

Re: Yep - he is

[LynnwoodRooster]

Does the law say you can eat a bowl of Cheerios in the morning? Better put that spoon down! Unless there is a law on the books prohibiting an action, ANY action is essentially legal. There is NO LAW saying you cannot distribute information about building a firearm (in fact, Amazon has a full list of books on how to turn basic materials into firearms), thus the information is completely legal.

What scares me about you and people with your opinion is that you have turned over ALL your freedoms and rights to the Government. You don't get it - they are YOUR RIGHTS, from the Creator and inherent. You choose to surrender ALL to the Government, and let IT dictate what you can do. One of the central tenets of the Constitution was the duties of Government were limited, and - as the Constitution itself says - it lists what the Federal Government can do. If it's not in that list - it cannot do it.

Our system of law is prohibitive, not permissive; it says what you cannot do - not what you can do. If there is no law restricting the distribution of this 3D file, then it is implicitly legal, and a judge has ZERO basis for banning such distribution. There is no legal grounds for Government to "ban" something without a law behind it.

People with your viewpoint on Government and governance are the true threat to freedom. You wish to turn this concept on its head, effectively allowing Government to tell you what you can do. To lose all freedoms and rights and become a mere serf. It is because Government has defined limits to its powers, and that we have the freedom to do as we will if no law restricts, that keeps society moving. Your approach leads to the USSR, to feudalism, to slavery. You willingly clamp a chain around your neck and hand it to your master - because they get to say what you can do. Sad.

Re:I have no understanding of this, FTFY

[Anonymous Coward]

Everyone should have access to chemical/biological/nuclear weapons tech

We already do. Check out your local college library.

In this case, the 2nd Amendment is being stretched well beyond its original intent

Quite the opposite. The intent was to allow citizens to own military hardware. Remember the first US Navy ships were privately owned, cannons and all.

the supporters ... we still have law and order to maintain ... Nobody is being realistically oppressed ... ridiculous an argument

Leave tribalism to baboons. Humans have moved on and the wise among us have decided certain rights are necessary to retain every other right.

Re:Clever kid ...

[blindseer]

The next step, if any, will be for the Feds and/or states to address the legality of shipping firearms without a license.

A firearm schematic is no more a firearm than the photo on my driving license is a person.

I know that doesn't make any sense, but neither did, "Cody is violating firearm export ..."

The government used a law on the export of militarily valuable information to prevent these files from being posted on the internet. While there are bits of data with significant value for national security this is not one of those bits. They didn't call the schematics a "firearm" but they certainly tried to create some kind of equivalence between a representation of the thing and the thing itself.

Re:DD Branded Drive

[blindseer]

I want the Barbara Streisand Edition Drive.

Those were all sold out in seconds.