File sharing has long been a part of the internet discussion. The sharing of music, movies, books, and other forms of media are common place, although legally murky. Attracting a lot of attention recently is Cody Wilson, Director of Defense Distributed (DD), an organization committed to sharing weapons designs to be fabricated through 3D printers.
Self-described crypto-anarchists, DD asks the question on its website, “How do governments behave if they must one day operate on the assumption that any and every citizen has near instant access to a firearm through the Internet?”
Users have access to several designs through Wilson’s website. DD’s AR-15 lower receiver model, a model made infamous by the Sandy Hook shooting, was created for less than $25 and shoots .22 rounds rather than traditional rifle rounds. DD also has an AK-47 model mockingly named Feinstein after Senator Diane Feinstein, who helped pass a 10-year ban on assault weapons in 1994.
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Unsurprisingly, DD has faced several obstacles on the road to actualization.
After the Sandy Hook shooting, design sharing site Thingiverse, the source of many of DD’s plans, removed all firearm-related files spurring DD to create DEFCAD, its own online repository of design files.
Ousted from fundraising site Indiegogo for allegedly ignoring rules about not selling firearms, Wilson counters that claim by saying DD wasn’t “giving people guns for money. We were giving them information.”
Howeve, DD was still able to reach its funding goal of $2o,ooo through contributions on PayPal and Bitcoin.
“We were looking to see if there was a market, and I suppose since it was funded, there’s a market,” said Wilson.
Upon receiving the necessary funding to begin printing prototypes, DD leased a 3D printer from Stratasys, a manufacturer of 3D printers and materials. However, Stratasys moved quickly to retrieve the printer claiming Wilson needed a gunsmith’s license and soon after referred Wilson to the Department of Justice Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosive. Wilson, perhaps rather bitterly, believes it “was the PR shock that led [Stratasys] to take the machine back “and thusly “mortally wound” his project.
Wilson and DD’s larger goal appears to be to demonstrate a practical anarchy and ignore any complaints relating to social contracts. When asked if he would be willing to accept limits on gun printing if it would help 3D printing overall Wilson said, “[DD] doesn’t feel the need to compromise and don’t feel I endanger community by thinking that.”
In that vein, Wilson says that DD has plans to make its gun printing files open source and available for everyone.
According to Wilson, “[3D printing of guns] is coming and no one is stopping us.”
About 15 years ago, I posted the observation that if we were a civilized society, we could sell guns out of vending machines on every corner and not see an increase in homicides. I also made the observation that even if every gun on earth were melted down and made into horseshoes, as long as there is a public library and an open machine shop, anyone who really wants a gun can have one. We can argue all day about which gun laws are practical and reasonable and which ones are not being enforced, but these are facts to be dealt with. Forty years ago, anyone who wanted one could walk into any gun shop, pawn shop or sporting goods store and walk out with one, with no background check, no waiting period, no questions asked, or just order one by mail from an ad in a comic book, and we seldom had horrific shootings, certainly not the mass events of the last several years. Something has changed in the people, and it’s way too easy to blame some cause like video games or movies. It’s more likely the absence of something; a failure to teach respect for others, a collapsing of the sense of community, or simply a widespread infantile self-absorption in which other people aren’t real and don’t matter.
Whatever it is, we’d better fix it, because here’s the reality: in the very near future, anyone who wants a gun will print one at home. We had better start filling that future with the kind of people who don’t want to shoot anybody.