The Victoria & Albert Museum in London has purchased two guns made from a 3D printer, the same ones that sparked a debate in the U.S. from gun control advocates.
The Associated Press reports that the museum plans to display two examples of the Liberator handgun, which was created by University of Texas law student Cody Wilson, as part of a new “new, influential, innovative or experimental” designs collection.
The Liberator is made completely of parts made by a 3D printer. One of the examples shown in the museum will be put together, while another will have the parts all laid out.
According to The BBC, the examples had to be printed in London, since wilson still doesn’t have an export license to bring the originals overseas. Back in May, he made headlines for agreeing to pull plans for the Liberator from his Defense Distributed site after the State Department made a request.
"So far people have focused on the ability to print out things at home, such as toys, but this seems to be only part of it. In my view, the gun blew all that away,” curator Kieran Long told The Guardian. “It showed the fuller implications of the dissemination of the means of production. Everybody is now potentially a manufacturer.”
The guns will be displayed as part of the London Design Festival, which began on Saturday and ends Sept. 22.