10 May 2013 Last updated at 10:18
US government orders removal of Defcad 3D-gun designs
The BBC’s Rebecca Morelle saw the 3D-printed gun’s first test in Austin, Texas
The US government has demanded designs for a 3D-printed gun be taken offline.
The order to remove the blueprints for the plastic gun comes after they were downloaded more than 100,000 times.
The US State Department wrote to the gun’s designer, Defense Distributed, suggesting publishing them online may breach arms-control regulations.
Although the files have been removed from the company’s Defcad site, it is not clear whether this will stop people accessing the blueprints.
They were being hosted by the Mega online service and may still reside on its servers.
Also, many links to copies of the blueprints have been uploaded to file-sharing site the Pirate Bay, making them widely available. The Pirate Bay has also publicised its links to the files via social news site Reddit suggesting many more people will get hold of the blueprints.
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Analysis: 3D printing’s Wild West
Earlier this week, I saw Cody Wilson fire his gun for the first time.
Small, white and made from plastic, the firearm looked like a toy. But as the shot rang, you could feel the force of this weapon.
Hours later, and the blueprints had been placed online.
Mr Wilson describes himself as a crypto-anarchist, and his belief is that everyone has a right to a gun.
Through this project he aimed to export this idea to the rest of the world – whether the rest of the world wanted it or not.
However a week is a long time in the Wild West of 3D printing, and now Mr Wilson has been ordered to remove the plans.
But with more than 100,000 downloads already, the designs have already been widely circulated, and there is now little that can be done to halt their spread.
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The Office of Defense Trade Controls Compliance wrote to Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson demanding the designs be “removed from public access” until he could prove he had not broken laws governing shipping weapons overseas by putting the files online and letting people outside the US download them.
Explosive force“We have to comply,” Mr Wilson told news magazine Forbes in an interview.
But he added the State Department’s fears were ungrounded, as Defense Distributed had been set up specifically to meet requirements that exempted it from the arms-control regulations.
He welcomed the US government’s intervention, saying it would highlight the issue of whether it was possible to stop the spread of 3D-printed weapons.
Unlike conventional weapons, the printed gun – called the Liberator by its creators – is made out of plastic on a printer. Many engineering firms and manufacturers use these machines to test prototypes before starting large-scale production.
While desktop 3D printers are becoming more popular, Defense Distributed used an industrial 3D printer that cost more than £5,000 to produce its gun. This was able to use high-density plastic that could withstand and channel the explosive force involved in firing a bullet.
To make the Liberator, Mr Wilson had to get a licence to make and sell the weapon from the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The Bureau told the BBC that any American could make a gun for their own use, even on a 3D printer, but selling it required a licence.
Mr Wilson, who describes himself as a crypto-anarchist, said the project to create a printed gun and make it widely available was all “about liberty”.
