Meet Cody Wilson, the Austin Man Behind the Fight Over 3D-Printed Guns

The Austin American Statesman (August 10, 2018) has an article about Cody Wilson, from Defense Distributed, the man behind the fight over 3D-printed guns.

Wilson initially won a lawsuit and obtained a settlement with the State Department to allow him to publish plans for 3D-printing guns.  Following this, 19 states and the District of Columbia persuaded a federal judge to temporarily block Wilson’s settlement with the State Department. A hearing on the matter is set for Aug. 21, with a decision expected by Aug. 28, when U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik’s temporary restraining order expires.

In legal filings in Seattle federal court, Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson argued that Wilson is seeking to undermine laws meant to keep guns away from minors, felons, people with mental illness and those subject to protective court orders by publishing files that are “indispensable to a three-dimensional printing process used to create firearms and their components.”

The question that we should ask ourselves, and the question before the court, is whether information / plans on how to 3D-print a gun poses a clear and significant risk to public safety.

Any person who can legally own a firearm in the United States, can also legally build a firearm for personal use. So, if plans to build 3D-printed guns are generally available on-line, a hobbyist could legally make a 3D-printed gun. So, too could a 'criminal' who is prohibited by law from buying and possessing firearms. But does this mean that as soon as plans are available on-line that there will be a run on 3D printers and a black market business in 3D-printed guns? No! That is probably not going to happen.

Government censorship of information is always a concern. The fact is that it is perfectly legal for most people to use 3D printers to make a gun if they want to do so. It is not, and cannot, be the place of the government to infringe on the rights of the American people because someone might use information in an unlawful manner.