If gun control advocates hoped to prevent blueprints for the world’s first fully 3D-printable gun from spreading online, that horse has now left the barn about a hundred thousand times.
That’s the number of downloads of the 3D-printable file for the so-called “Liberator” gun that the high-tech gunsmithing group Defense Distributed has seen in just the last two days, a member of the group tells me. The gun’s CAD files have been ten times more popular than any component the group has previously made available, parts that have included the body of an AR-15 and the magazine for an AK-47.”This has definitely been our most well-received download,” says Haroon Khalid, a developer working with Defense Distributed. “I don’t think any of us predicted it would be this much.”
Apparently the State Department has now demanded that the 3D gun files be removed from the site:
On Thursday, Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson received a letter from the State Department Office of Defense Trade Controls Compliance demanding that he take down the online blueprints for the 3D-printable “Liberator” handgun that his group released Monday, along with nine other 3D-printable firearms components hosted on the group’s website Defcad.org. The government says it wants to review the files for compliance with arms export control laws known as the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, or ITAR. By uploading the weapons files to the Internet and allowing them to be downloaded abroad, the letter implies Wilson’s high-tech gun group may have violated those export controls.
Of course that is a 100,000 downloads too late.
I don't know what this means to the gun debate, but if this technology continues without any ability to control access, I have to wonder just what ELSE might show up to be 3D printed in the not too distant future?
I think marks the first time in a long time that I have been less than enthusiastic about new technological breakthroughs.
What kind of insanity is this? Why do men (and I bet this entire outfit is male) think that the more guns the better? Couldn't they sue their brains to create something that benefits society? Just once? But no, they use their educations and creativity to make more guns. Goody. More death. More time wasted trying to CONTROL this, and more 2nd amendment whining about government interference in their 'rights.' Can we ship all gun owners to another country? I know, maybe these creeps can design a brand new 3D country just for them.
ReplyDeleteLet's send them to some forlorn base on the moon. And when they can promise to be nice, they can come back to our living, breathing earth.
DeleteNow any idiot can have a gun for the price of a 3-D printer! What is wrong with these idiots? It is so sad after all the gun massacres in the country this jerk has the gall to do this! He has no conscience. Anyone without a conscience is nothing more than a sociopath, and this is not a mental illness. I'd say there are a lot of sociopaths in high places! Greed and power!
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to download my 3D Atom Bomb design.
ReplyDeleteJust how does this 3D thing work? The equipment to actually make a gun must be expensive. How and where are these people getting the materials and machinery?
ReplyDeletea home 3D printer can be less than $1000. Probably a $5000 one would be capable of reproducing those gun plans.
DeleteHow many of these Do It Yourselfers will get hurt with the finished product? Plastic 3-D gun blows face off the shooter.....
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 3:47 am, that would serve them right. If that would happen, then maybe they would finally figure out that guns should not be in the hands of idiots!
DeleteOne can only hope.
DeleteThere has been publicity about this for at least the last 6 mos. I am furious that someone took this long to notice.
ReplyDeleteWe are becoming a truly irresponsible society, no matter what kinds of laws we enact, and the Libertarian horse left the barn a long time ago when it comes to the internet and modern technology.
Kiss "civil society" goodbye.
I remember reading about it months and months ago and then it was even covered in an episode of CSI New York! CSI Miami did an episode featuring 'smart' bullets, then lo and behold: an article about that technology showed up.
DeleteWe are in so much danger.
At normal propagation rates those 100,000 downloads are in the millions of copies by now. There is no way to scrub files from thumb drives and other devices that are not connected to the internet.
ReplyDeleteGood job "Defense Disturbed", they just supplied 100,000 deranged criminals and terrorists around the world with a free gun.
ReplyDeletePirate Bay Takes Over Distribution of Censored 3D Printable Gun
ReplyDeleteA few days after the blueprints for the world’s first printable gun were published online, Defense Distributed has been asked by the State Department to pull them down, citing possible arms trafficking violations. The blueprints, however, are still available on The Pirate Bay and many other file-sharing sites, which adds a 3D chapter to the IP enforcement debate.The Pirate Bay says it welcomes the blueprints and has no intention of taking the files down.
3d-goneIn late 2012 the 3D blueprint website Thingiverse decided to ban 3D gun designs, citing their terms of service which clearly prohibit files used to make weapons.
Enter DEFCAD, a site dedicated to hosting designs that have been banned at Thingiverse. Namely, the entirely printable 3D gun design which clocked up more than 100,000 downloads within its first two days of release.
This did not sit well with the Department of State Office of Defense Trade Controls who kindly requested that DEFCAD remove the availability of the 3D printable gun documents, enthusiastically named “The Liberator,” citing a possible violation of International Traffic in Arms Regulations.
In the letter from the State Department, which can be read in full at Forbes, the Government explains that it wants to review whether the designs are in compliance with arms export control laws.
While the attempted censorship of the 3D gun blueprints may come as no surprise, the popularity of these files is a vivid example of the daunting task faced by those charged with censorship of information.
While DEFCON promptly complied with the request to remove access to the design, it was shared so widely during the short window of availability that it is now virtually impossible to prevent any further distribution. Currently, there appears to be several torrents available for the design at The Pirate Bay and the site informs us that these will not be censored.
“TPB has for close to 10 years been operating without taking down one single torrent due to pressure from the outside. And it will never start doing that,” A Pirate Bay insider told TorrentFreak.
http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-takes-over-distribution-of-censored-3d-printable-gun-130510/
Hackers of the world unite! They may be the only ones who can hit these sites in a way that counts.
DeleteIf these are plastic, they would not set off the metal detectors at the airports. There was some video out not long ago that showed if objects are strapped to a person's side, they aren't visible to the scanners either. This is total insanity.
ReplyDeleteThe Jinni is out of the bottle. They better regulate the hell out of those printers ASAP, perhaps install little black chips that record what objects are made or make sure that only licensed, regulated companies can have them!
ReplyDeleteThis means so much trouble on the horizon.
M from MD
Maddow has been tracking this, but this article so alarmed me that I immediately contacted my Governor and my US members in Congress. They all need to hear from us. This is bad news for everyone's safety.
ReplyDeleteM from MD
Well, the Jeanie is out of the bottle, and cannot be put back in. I am wondering if they actually can make the WHOLE gun out of plastic, of if some parts do need to be made out od metal, like a recoil spring...
ReplyDeleteThey already also have a prototype of a three-wheeled car in the works. Takes a long time to make, but seems to be in the final production stages.
ReplyDeleteThere's no sign of intelligent life... Beam me up, Scotty!
.... And people got hammered for downloading music from the net? WTF?
And they call it the BRAVE NEW WORLD.
ReplyDeleteHi Gryphen,
ReplyDeleteNews outlets here in Australia are reporting that Kim Dotcom has ordered his sites remove public access to the files.
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1765356/Dotcom-orders-deletion-of-3D-gun-design
Interviews with the gun's designer, Cody Wilson, were played repeatedly across Australian radio last week. I get the feeling that his world view - which is about "universal access to firearms"- is not shared by nearly as many people as he expected.