A non-profit group that posted the files for the first 3D-printed handgun has been told to take the files down by the State Department.
Cody Wilson, the founder of Defense Distributed, posted a video showing his ‘Liberator’ handgun at work on Monday. According to CNN, it is made entirely of parts made by a 3D printer, except for the metal firing pin and a metal piece needed for it to follow the Undetectable Firearms Act. On Thursday, the site’s Twitter page posted, “DEFCAD files are being removed from public access at the request of the US Department of Defense Trade Controls.”
Since then, the files for the weapon have disappeared. Wilson added on his own Twitter account, “#DEFCAD is going dark at the request of the SOS Department of Defense Trade Controls. Some shapes are more dangerous than others.”
According to Forbes, the State Department’s Office of Defense Trade Controls Compliance said that the site may have violated the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and is reviewing the files.
“Until the Department provides Defense Distributed with final [commodity jurisdiction] determinations, Defense Distributed should treat the above technical data as ITAR-controlled,” the letter Wilson received reads. The government then lists several files that were up on the site.
“This means that all data should be removed from public access immediately,” it continued. “Defense Distributed should review the remainder of the data made public on its website to determine whether any other data may be similarly controlled and proceed according to ITAR requirements.”
While Wilson has made it clear that he is not a fan of the U.S. government, the University of Texas law student, said he had to comply with the request. Still, he’s getting an attorney.
“For me, it's important as a symbolic political statement,” he told CNN about his site on Monday. “And that statement is something like, 'No, the future we imagine is one of personalized manufacture and access to objects. It doesn't matter what the decision is on the Hill ... in this future, people will be able to make guns for themselves.’”
In an interview with Betabeat on Thursday, Wilson said that this is not just about guns, but Internet freedom. “I still think we win in the end. Because the files are all over the Internet, the Pirate Bay has it–to think this can be stopped in any meaningful way is to misunderstand what the future of distributive technologies is about,” he said.