We told you awhile back about Defense Distributed and their wiki weapon project. Though intriguing at the time, we did not go into too much detail about the project itself, as it appeared that the best printable gun could not fire without breaking into pieces.

Well, Defense Distributed has come out with a fully working Printed Pistol and the debate has suddenly changed. The pistol is of high enough quality that it can fire multiple rounds and serve for home defense. The only component you can’t print for the gun is the firing pin. But the firing pin is just a nail that can be bought at any hardware store. The next step is a more sophisticated gun for use in target shooting.

Techcrunch posted its reaction to this development, claiming that this could only lead to more regulation/gun deaths. While we can understand that perspective, it is still quite unlikely that mass amounts of people will begin committing murder with a Liberator-style gun. As noted previously, creating a gun of this kind means one needs to purchase a working printer (still far more expensive than a regular handgun) and – more importantly – have the skill to use the printer and blueprints. Most psychopaths/enraged homeowners do not have the patience for this. In addition, the guns currently being created are still of such low quality that you cannot guarantee they’ll fire without jamming (or even fire at all).

The guns created are also not… well, ‘stylish’. One of few things nearly all bombers/shooters have in common is that they think of themselves as artists. They are the men with the manifesto no one has read, the art no one will buy, the vision no one gets. That’s why these people are always attempting to rip off the matrix or, when arrested, tell officers, “just call me the Joker”. Even if they had the time and patience to build a Liberator, chances are they still wouldn’t because the gun does not in any way make the statement they want or fit their dark twisted fantasies.

But the government has decided otherwise. Late yesterday, Defense Distributed tweeted that the Liberator project had “gone dark” after being shut down by government officials. Texas law student Cody Wilson, the company’s founder, told Forbes magazine, “We have to comply,” but also quickly pointed out that Defense Distributed had been specifically set up to meet requirements that exempted it from the regulations. Wilson later added, “…in the end we’re going to be having a fight about what it means to be controlling information.”

 

What are your thoughts: Should the Liberator project be shut down? What about any future 3D printing projects that could potentially be used as weapons?