Texas firm selling blueprints to 3D-printed guns despite ruling
AUSTIN, Texas — The owner of a Texas company that makes untraceable 3Dprinted guns said Tuesday that he has begun selling the blueprints through his website to anyone who wants to make one, despite a federal court order barring him from posting the plans online.
Cody Wilson said at a news conference that he started selling the plans Tuesday and that he had already received nearly 400 orders. He said he’ll sell the plans for as little as a penny to anyone in the country who wants them.
“Anyone who wants to get these files is going to get them,” Wilson said, noting he can only sell to U.S. customers.
Wilson said blueprints purchased through his company’s website could be copied to a thumb drive and shipped to buyers by standard mail, sent by email or sent by some other secure Texas-based Defense Distributed began selling blueprints to 3D-printed guns. download transfer. Some of his first sales included crypto currency, he said.
Nineteen states and the District of Columbia had sought an injunction to stop a settlement that the State Department reached with Wilson’s Austin-based company, Defense Distributed, after the agency removed the 3D gun-making plans from a list of weapons or technical data that are not allowed to be exported. The states argued that online access to the plastic guns would pose a security risk and could be acquired by felons or terrorists.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik in Se- attle blocked Defense Distributed from posting the blueprints online, saying, “It is the untraceable and undetectable nature of these small firearms that poses a unique danger.”
Wilson said he believes the ruling allows him to sell the blueprints even if he can’t post them online.
“Regulation under the (law) means that the files cannot be uploaded to the internet, but they can be emailed, mailed, securely transmitted, or otherwise published within t he United States,” the ruling said on its final page.
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, whose office oversaw the federal lawsuit, said he believes the judge’s ruling makes Wilson’s latest actions illegal.
“Because of our lawsuit, it is once again illegal to post downloadable gun files to the internet. I trust the federal government will hold Cody Wilson, a selfdescribed ‘crypto- anarchist,’ accountable to that law,” Ferguson said.