Soon, you could legally download a gun. Cody Wilson, the gunmaker who used the world’s first fully 3D-printed gun, won a multi-year legal battle against the US government which will now allow him to make 3D models of gun components available online. This Wired report covers the full details of the protracted legal case .
In short, focusing both on the free speech rights granted by the First Amendment and the Second Amendment, the settlement now allows users to own and distribute 3D models for working firearms components.
“Significantly, the government expressly acknowledges that non-automatic firearms up to .50-caliber — including modern semi-auto sporting rifles such as the popular AR-15 and similar firearms — are not inherently military,” declared the Second Amendment Foundation, one of Wilson’s supporters.
Some components are restricted but can be sold in incomplete state. What’s truly remarkable is that, while it’s still illegal to sell plans for 3D printed guns, people can freely share and use those plans.
“This legal victory is the formal beginning to the era of downloadable guns. Guns are as downloadable as music. There will be streaming services for semi-automatics,” wrote Cody Wilson to Techcrunch. Later this month, he intends to launch the first firearm blueprints to his Defcad.com website.
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