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Screen Shot 2013-05-09 at 3.54.00 PMA tweet from Cody Wilson reveals the truth about the Liberator pistol project: the D0D has requested that Defense Distributed remove their files from the internet, and Cody Wilson has complied. Clicking on the Downloads tab at defcad.org yields this message: “DEFCAD files are being removed from public access at the request of the US Department of Defense Trade Controls. Until further notice, the United States government claims control of the information.” The DoD Trade Controls office is technically part of the State Department. As libertyandsuch.com points out, the mega-minds in the .gov are apparently some of the last people to figure out how the internet really works. DefDist’s CAD files are still available here. For now. According to forbes.com . . .

Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson received a letter from the State Department Office of Defense Trade Controls Compliance [full text below] demanding that he take down the online blueprints for the 3D-printable “Liberator” handgun that his group released Monday, along with nine other 3D-printable firearms components hosted on the group’s website Defcad.org.

The government says it wants to review the files for compliance with arms export control laws known as the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, or ITAR. By uploading the weapons files to the Internet and allowing them to be downloaded abroad, the letter implies Wilson’s high-tech gun group may have violated those export controls.

“Until the Department provides Defense Distributed with final [commodity jurisdiction] determinations, Defense Distributed should treat the above technical data as ITAR-controlled,” reads the letter, referring to a list of ten CAD files hosted on Defcad that include the 3D-printable gun, silencers, sights and other pieces. “This means that all data should be removed from public acces immediately. 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.”

Not an unexpected development. Nor unwelcome by Mr. Wilson. “This is the conversation I want,” Wilson told Forbes. “Is this a workable regulatory regime? Can there be defense trade control in the era of the Internet and 3D printing?” It looks like we’re going to find out. Here’s the letter from the DOD:

United States Department of State
Bureau of Political-Military Affairs
Offense of Defense Trade Controls Compliance

May 08, 2013

In reply letter to DTCC Case: 13-0001444

[Cody Wilson’s address redacted]

Dear Mr. Wilson,

The Department of State, Bureau of Political Military Affairs, Office of Defense Trade Controls Compliance, Enforcement Division (DTCC/END) is responsible for compliance with and civil enforcement of the Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2778) (AECA) and the AECA’s implementing regulations, the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (22 C.F.R. Parts 120-130) (ITAR). The AECA and the ITAR impose certain requirements and restrictions on the transfer of, and access to, controlled defense articles and related technical data designated by the United States Munitions List (USML) (22 C.F.R. Part 121).

The DTCC/END is conducting a review of technical data made publicly available by Defense Distributed through its 3D printing website, DEFCAD.org, the majority of which appear to be related to items in Category I of the USML. Defense Distributed may have released ITAR-controlled technical data without the required prior authorization from the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC), a violation of the ITAR.

Technical data regulated under the ITAR refers to information required for the design, development, production, manufacture, assembly, operation, repair, testing, maintenance or modification of defense articles, including information in the form of blueprints, drawings, photographs, plans, instructions or documentation. For a complete definition of technical data, see 120.10 of the ITAR. Pursuant to 127.1 of the ITAR, it is unlawful to export any defense article or technical data for which a license or written approval is required without first obtaining the required authorization from the DDTC. Please note that disclosing (including oral or visual disclosure) or tranferring technical data to a foreign person, whether in the United States or abroad, is considered an export under 120.17 of the ITAR.

The Department believes Defense Distributed may not have established the proper jurisdiction of the subject technical data. To resolve this matter officially, we request that Defense Distributed submit Commodity Jurisdiction (CJ) determination requests for the following selection of data files available on DEFCAD.org, and any other technical data for which Defense Distributed is unable to determine proper jurisdiction:

  1. Defense Distributed Liberator pistol
  2. .22 electric
  3. 125mm BK-14M high-explosive anti-tank warhead
  4. 5.56/.223 muzzle brake
  5. Springfield XD-40 tactical slide assembly
  6. Sound Moderator – slip on
  7. “The Dirty Diane” 1/2-28 to 3/4-16 STP S3600 oil filter silencer adapter
  8. 12 gauge to .22 CB sub-caliber insert
  9. Voltlock electronic black powder system
  10. VZ-58 sight

DTCC/END requests that Defense Distributed submits its CJ requests within three weeks of the receipt of this letter and notify this office of the final CJ determinations. All CJ requests must be submitted electronically through an online application using the DS-4076 Commodity Jurisdiction Request Form. The form, guidance for submitting CJ requests, and other relevant information such as a copy of the ITAR can be found on DDTC’s website at http://www.pmddtc.state.gov.

Until the Department provides Defense Distributed with the final CJ determinations, Defense Distributed should treat the above technical data as ITAR-controlled. This means that all such data shoudl be removed form public access immediately. Defense Distributed should also review the remainder of the data made public on its website to determine whether any additional data may be similarly controlled and proceed according to ITAR requirements.

Additionally, DTCC/END requests information about the procedures Defense Distributed follows to determine the classification of its technical data, to include aforementioned technical data files. We ask that you provide your procedures for determining proper jurisdiction of technical data within 30 days of the date of this letter to Ms. Bridget Van Buren, Compliance Specialist, Enforcement Division, at the address below.

Office of Defense Trade Controls Compliance
PM/DTCC, SA-1, Room L132
2401 E Street, NW
Washington, DC 20522
Phone 202-663-3323<

We appreciate your full cooperation in this matter. Please note our reference number in any future correspondence.

Sincerely,

Glenn E. Smith
Chief, Enforcement Division

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152 COMMENTS

    • You mean before there’s MILLIONS of him? LOL. CHECKMATE. Shame they never anticipated this, huh? Not even the highly-paid think tanks saw this coming. CODY WILSON FOR MOUNT RUSHMORE!

    • State Department not Defense Department.

      Directorate of Defense Trade Controls is part of State as it states in article.

      • Dept. of State is probably acting on the request of some foreign country that this kind of information might threaten. And for the like minded folks in this government that this kind of thing threatens.

    • Is mega pack 4.2 (Saito) from April 19th the most recent compilation or is there a newer one?

      [EDIT] Y’know, I probably wouldn’t even have cared if bureaucrats hadn’t taken this action. I don’t have a 3D printer and don’t have plans to get one. Let printers putter with their hobby. But since they took this action….

      • The same. i had no intention of downloading them before today. but, like most people, my reaction to being told i can’t was to clench a fist and demand “Who the f*ck are you?!”

        • In case anyone wants to know: yes Mega Pack v4.2 is the latest compilation of what they had. The Liberator pistol is too new to be included though and you need to get it separate.

  3. I was going to say, if Defense Distributed had any intelligence they’d continually update their files on torrent sites for just this situation.

    • Cody was encouraging others (outside of his reach) to mirror his site and torrent copies of his files. He anticipated that the government would find some justification to shut him down, and wanted to make sure he proved a point that they could not stop the dissemination of information even if they can stop the party who first released that information. Cody is somewhat of an anarchist; so I reckon this is all part of the plan. He was going to push it until they shut him down.

  4. Cody better lawyer up. Feds are gonna nail his balls to the wall as an example – among other things, arms export violations. Not that they will win, but it does put a dent in that law school character and fitness/pass the bar exam thing. Just sayin’ . . . .

    • See, that’s just the thing. Exporting what?

      This is just as asinine and ridiculous as the DoD’s past restrictions on “encryption export.” Those of you not in the IT biz may not know it, but for years there were separate versions of many pieces of software sold in the US, one with strong encryption and one with weak encryption, for sale outside of the US. The DoD somehow came to the conclusion that strong encryption constituted a weapon, and 128-bit or higher encryption algorithms could not be “exported” under penalty of law.

      Only one problem: you cannot possibly control the “export” of something once it gets placed on the internet. The internet doesn’t have borders. It doesn’t have checkpoints. It doesn’t care about national boundaries.

      The DoD should NOT BE ALLOWED to have any ability to charge Cody for “exporting weapons”, simply by placing plans on the internet.

  5. And now it begins.. Well that sucks!
    I don’t think they will charge him with anything yet, they will just try and stop that which can not be stopped!

    • Too late. Someone’s in trouble for not seeing this coming. Cody Wilson for President.

      What? He’s not old enough? Obama’s not CITIZEN enough.

  6. Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave…my a$$. Welcome to the NWO. Guess they got tired of trying to take away the 2nd ammendment…gonna work on the 1st a bit now…

    • Yep. All the AK-47’s you can carry for Mexico. Shut down a little plastic gun thing in the U.S. Makes as much sense as everything else our Government does.

    • If you haven’t been paying attention, we’ve had “free speech zones” since Bush. When a guy in norway cracked the DVD encryption routine, the state dept had the guy arrested and prosecuted in Norway for it (for violating the international treaty that the US forced on trading partners with the DMCA).

      We haven’t had free speech in a long time, and if a “new world order” comes from anywhere, it comes from the US.

    • Yeah I think they are technically violating his first amendment rights as well but it’s not like this will do anything nor should it.

  8. Once the idea of a printable gun is public knowledge (Thanks MSM!!), that idea can’t be removed by simply making the files unavailable. All you need is a CAD program and you can make your own designs. And if you have a 3-D printer, you probably have access to a CAD program as well.
    Is this really that difficult to understand, DoD??

    • And they’re already available and will continue to be. It’s the same reason you never post pictures online you font want people to see. Once they’re out there they’re out there.

      • Exactly. This was a demonstration of the capabilities of the currently available materials and 3D printers. The CAD part has been a known for years. AND…the material science and the 3D printers will continue to improve.

  9. This is about sharing information…
    http://www.amazon.com/The-Anarchist-Cookbook-William-Powell/dp/1607965232/ref=pd_sim_b_4
    For $17 this book will teach you how to turn a clicker pen into a bomb that will blow somebody’s hand off, or how to make explosives with every day items… I have the right to buy this, and learn how to kill anybody I want. I won’t, and even if I knew I wouldn’t kill anybody, but the fact remains, until I break the law the government has no right to restrict my knowledge. Likewise, they have no right to restrict the knowledge of how to manufacture and assemble a gun in my garage, whether I use a lathe, press, milling machine, and welder, or a 3d printer. It is unconstitutional. It is wrong. And it is about freedom of information much more than it is about guns… He isn’t selling any guns, he is giving away pretty drawings of guns created in fancy 3d modeling software suites… That is all…

    • A lot of the stuff in that book is fairly dangerous. If you have experience and know what you are doing, it’s got some good stuff, but history is full of kids who bought it and then tried to duplicate some of the more explosive experiments with rather unpleasant results.

      The Anarchist Cookbook was cool 30 years ago and one of the few placed to find it’s sort of content. Today, you can generally find better info on the ‘Net

      • dont ask me how i know this, but when attempting to distill lsd from seeds using petroleum ether based on the recipe in that book, its best not to do the “drying” in a gas oven.

    • I bought this book about 40 years ago. This is a reprint but still a fun book to read. I just wonder where my copy went.

    • poor mans james bond is much better than anarchist cookbook. much more up to date. Anarchist has flawed instructions that render bombs into flares and fuses that prove unreliable.

  10. Alex Jones’s head is going to explode….I don’t have a 3D printer but I’ve got the file anyway.

    • I don’t have a 3d printer but I downloaded all of the defdist files anyway and have shared them with others who don’t even have internet access.

  12. Would the same thing happen if say S&W put up one of their designs or cad files?

    This kind of reminds me of Napster.

    • Yes, it would. But given their business connections with law enforcement in this country I doubt they’d ever be prosecuted.

    • Hey, not all is lost yet. We’re hitting a breaking point, but we don’t yet know which way it’ll break.

    • You yourself have no idea what it’s like living in a free country, despite your shaky memory telling you that did at some undetermined point in the past (presumably the golden age before Obama came into office). In 1920 the United States prohibited the consumption of alcohol – demonstrably defining the country as not “free”, and of course it hadn’t been “free” for many years before that either. I doubt you are over a hundred.

      If anybody here actually was old enough to remember what this country was like when it was “free” his name would probably be “chief” something, and rather than talk about how “free” he was he would most likely talk about how hard life was without modern society, and how much he hated having to shit in a hole in the ground.

      All you freedom loving baggers are more than welcome to move to Somalia and tell us how you get on in your Randian paradise – I for one would love to hear about that, rather than yet more whining about how we are not “free” any more.

  14. Just a housecleaning note, but looks like the request came from the Department of Defense Trade Controls, which is a subgroup of Dept. of State, not DoD.

    Just a subtle difference there.

    • Hey, if they don’t send soldiers to Benghazi, I doubt they’d send them to Defense Distributed….

    • Actually it’s way more than a subtle difference. State and Defense are worlds apart and frankly, I’d rather have state pissed at me than DoD

  15. The thought police have struck.
    Has anyone alerted al gore that the gubment is messing with his internet?

  16. Bittorrent magnet link:

    magnet:?xt=urn:btih:C862F0D031E575384ACC6BACC2BE7D705666D5BF&dn=DefDist_DEFCAD_MEGA_PACK_v4.2_%28Saito%29&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.openbittorrent.com%3a80%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.publicbt.com%3a80%2fannounce&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.ccc.de%3a80%2fannounce

  17. The internet was designed to route around damage. This is pure persecution by a rogue government, accomplishing nothing.

  18. The gov’t going the ITAR route is interesting. ITAR covers a lot of stuff, or can depending on interpretation. This is all about sending ITAR controlled data, or that in their opinion, data that should be ITAR controlled, data outside of the US. My brief stint in defense exposed me to some of the ITAR stuff. You can’t even share with people of your own company if they aren’t US citizens. Basically they are saying that you should have checked with us before allowing potential foreign access because we might determine the data is ITAR controlled. You can’t know it’s ITAR controlled until you ask.

    If you buy firearms, parts, and optics, you will have come across the ITAR disclaimer on lots of items.

  19. Wait. He gave up after receiving a letter like that? LOL When I worked as a corporate attorney we sent out crap like that all the time. You send it out, see if scares somebody into complying, and laugh when they do.

    Threatening letters are lazy, real lawsuits take time, and government attorneys ALWAYS say “No, you can’t do that.” I’ve worked for the Feds too- they’d stamp everything Top Secret if they could, even used toilet paper.

    I bet they even send these letters to Al Qaeda. “Dear Jihadi, your diagram of explosive-laden pressure cookers is in violation of…”

    • I think Wilson knows this as good as anybody. He’s a law student after all.

      However, he is playing their bluff, and winning. He knows that generating fear and publicity will only further his point: That you’d can’t control information in the information age.

      Cody’s point is that you can’t control technology in the age to come.

      You want to close Defcad? Ok, we’ll close Defcad.

      Millions are now torrenting and sharing this file. More so than before the letter was sent. This is only the beginning.

      • This has been Cody Wilson’s point from the start. In interviews he has stated as much. DefDist, DEFCAD, all the rest is just the vehicle to prove the point that the free flow of information = Freedom. By making gun control = censorship, he has drawn the lines between who truly believes in liberty and who is afraid of it.

        Simon: “Cody’s point is that you can’t control technology in the age to come.

        You want to close Defcad? Ok, we’ll close Defcad.

        Millions are now torrenting and sharing this file. More so than before the letter was sent. This is only the beginning.”

  20. Myself and 100 million other people downloaded the Liberator, AR Lower, and AR Standard Capacity Magazine CAD files. I can assure everyone Cody’s projects will remain available for downloading for a very long time. Whether its on http://defcad.org, which is were it belongs, or the darker side of the internet is up to the Feds.

  22. “This is the conversation I want,” Wilson told Forbes. “Is this a workable regulatory regime? Can there be defense trade control in the era of the Internet and 3D printing?”

    I appreciate this man’s cajones but copying a DVD is illegal in the era of the internet so I don’t have much hope for printable guns.

    • Copying movies or music is illegal because the information itself is copyright protected.

      Cody published his stuff for free use, so he’s not going to go around trying to sue people who copy the data.

      • No, the DMCA makes the act of interfering with copy protection illegal. The code itself for decrypting a DVD is illegal to own or reproduce.

        The state dept is very clearly in the habit of making certain kinds of information illegal.

        • Whether a DVD is encrypted/copy-protected or not, it is still illegal to make a copy of copyrighted material without permission of the copyright owner, save for “fair use” or whatever other conditions exist in the license.

  23. I am envisioning the brilliant South Park episode from years and years ago when the FBI went door to door shooting people for downloading songs from Napster.

    I hope there isn’t any legal risk associated with merely possessing these files.

  25. I wonder what the difference is between downloading his files and downloading a set of schematics for a 1911 off the internet?

  27. If you have a scanner and a CAD program like AutoCAD all you need next is a bit of time to layer the object and a 3D printer. The last time I checked, 3D printers were readily available in Mexico City at half the price in good old US of A.

    In any case, since the pictures of all of the parts have already been published you don’t need a 3D printer; just a block of tempered plastic or some other strong composite, a vise, hacksaw, some files, and some time.

    It’s just like making C4 explosive. All of the ingredients are in a well stocked family kitchen. Most present and former combat folks already know the formula. Also, the government can’t force us to forget it or prevent us from passing it along to our children.

    It is impossible for the government to stop the proliferation of knowledge.

    • If you can make the prerequisite RDX and a plasticizer in a family kitchen, you’re a better man than I.

      If you keep fuming nitric and methenamine in your family kitchen, you’re a scarier man than I.

  28. What a bunch of horse $#!t … the feds want verification that the CAD files for “Springfield XD-40 tactical slide assembly” are somehow not sensitive. The design of a slide on a common hand gun is not sensitive information.

    This is just big Gov flexing its muscles and trying to intimidate We the People.

    • I would like to add: XD Pistols are made and designed in Croatia. Which last I checked is not in the USA….

  29. Information is information. Information that a government doesn’t want you to have seems to behave more like a superfluid. Best of luck with that.

  30. boy the ACLU must really be in a bind about this. Free speech, but what about speech about guns?

    Does anyone think that giving the Chinese people a way to rebel is NOT a good idea? Chinese freedom courtesy of us.

  31. Every gun owner should download the files even if they never plan to make the gun as an act of civil defiance.

  32. makes you feel all warm and fuzzy patriotic doesnt it?

    the next time you stand and sing the anthem, you remember stuff like this. The empires behavior never ceases to amaze me.

  33. The lawyers and gunstore lawyers can also work this over: absent a formal finding of fact, with appropriate appellate opportunity, that the designs actually are covered by applicable laws, why is this not prior restraint, or denial of due process?

  34. To those who think this is going to be fun for Mr. Wilson, trust me it won’t. Being tied up with criminal charges won’t be a barrel of laughs. Oh and that will be for YEARS. The government has ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD guys. Cases get passed from person to person as folks take vacation, move on to new jobs and even retire. Check out the Olofson case for grins. This over a faulty trigger in a gun.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Olofson

    Mr. Wilson will be paying lawyers, go bankrupt and have all his worldly possessions seized and sold. His friends, acquaintances and associates will be turned against him. Some will be revealed to be Federal informants. All the while the steady pounding away of the government will continue. If he gets to finish law school he will hit a road block in getting a state law license with Felony charges against him. He may be able to practice his trade in Federal prison.

    I said this earlier, he better get a savvy lawyer representing him pronto. Otherwise he is doing time. Folks don’t violate export laws without consequences. Period. I always remind folks that they got Capone on a tax violation. Wilson’s entire life and dealings will be under scrutiny. He had better have led a life of a saint, cause if they really get pissed at him and Hillary comes a calling they will prosecute him for not clipping his toenails.

  35. can someone up it to rapid share or some http direct download site, I cant get torrents at work?

  36. I am not a lawyer, but could he not restrict the site access to only United States subnets and leave the files up? Access restricted, good day.

  37. I have to wonder how you guys would feel if some Al Qaeda group downloaded it and used it to kill Americans. Life is not always as simple as we try to make it. While I am sure this is not Mr. Wilson’s intent, there is a reason we have export restrictions and other similar laws. Also, even if the US govt. itself violated some of those with Fast & Furious it will not stop them from being extremely meticulous in applying the law to him. As someone said above, get a good lawyer.

    Still, the fact is that no one can ever put the genie back in the bottle.

    • Al Qaeda has access to pressure cookers and fireworks and real pistols and you’re worried about a single shot plastic .22? I don’t think you’ve been paying attention. Google “Boston Marathon” and tell me that you’re worried about a little toy gun.

    • facepalm*

      Life is also NEVER as simple as your lame analogy. Do you even own a televison? What site uploaded the blueprints for pressure-cookers? None. The mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan are filled with workshops hand-crafting weapons and explosive devices out of the kind of crap you drop off at GoodWill and you want to preach about a CAD file that requires access to a $35000 printer to make use of.

      Ben Franklin wants to kick you in the balls, but unfortunately he is dead.

    • “I have to wonder how you guys would feel if some Al Qaeda group downloaded it and used it to kill Americans.”

      I will answer that with a quote from A Storm of Swords, the third book in the series A Song of Ice and Fire, which some of you will recognize better as Game of Thrones.

      “It’s dangerous being free, but most come to like the taste o’ it.”

    • The same way I felt when a psycho shot some school children on a horrible day in December, but my feelings aren’t a reason to restrict freedom.

  38. OMG a plastic gun!!! What’s next? An AK-47 made out of a shit shovel?

    This does make me wonder about the shit shovel AK. Would that be considered the same thing? He shows nearly step by step how to make the AK receiver. It’s too late though, the cat is out of the bag and it is all over the world in digital format.

  40. So let me get this straight: The letter says ITAR regulates the distribution of blueprints, plans, photos, drawings, instructions or “documentation”. So if I took or drew an accurate picture of a real working gun or a part of a gun (or one of these other “defense articles”) or wrote about how it was made and posted it online, I could be in violation?

    (Doesn’t this cover what’s in pretty much any firearm user manual or parts diagram?)

    OMG! TTAG Gun Reviews could be covered by ITAR!

  41. No, this doesn’t surprise me. The Feds are, in this case, merely arguing that his stuff might be nothing we want in the ands of hostile foreign nationals.

    I know ways of bringing down aircraft that are not detectable by currently implemented methods – as I’m certain do other chemists and engineers – but don’t publish ’em, for obvious reasons, including but not limited to the following:

    – it would be bad such information to fall into enemy hands;
    – such information is not relevant to the liberty of Americans, or the quest for same;
    – doing so would get me into some very hot water;
    – such knowledge would point the planners of Bad Things in I directions they’ve (fortunately) yet to explore;
    – I’m very clever, but not a wacko.

    While the “Liberator” ain’t much, it’s more than so e baddies “over there” have.

    ‘Course, the time to do this was long, long ago. Too late now.

    • Russ, the BGs just killed or wounded almost 300 people in Boston with a kitchen implement and some fireworks. In the sandbox, they have AKs, RPGs and IEDs.

      The BGs have access to all kinds of weapons. Americans, on the other hand, are often denied access to any arms that might be used for self defense. So nobody should be worried about a plastic single shot .22 falling into the wrong hands.

      • Aren’t you supposed to be a lawyer ralph? How can you write such illogical dribble? I would have thought that a real lawyer, rather than someone who went to Lionel Hutz’s strip-mall law school, would even be able to give me the Latin name for the logical fallacy you promote.

        • Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, #12:

          * RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)

        • hmmmmmmmmmm’s rules for dumbasses, #69:

          Rule 69: When somebody points out any kind of absurdity, stupidity or logical error by a person who happens to share your own ideology then you should attack the first person mercilessly regardless of how correct they are. If you can also introduce a personality hated by right wing bagger retards and use that as a strawman in your reply then so much the better.

        • Well werewolf who knows – perhaps one day you will get your wet dream come true and can round people like me up and put us in camps. There’s nothing the ignorant hate more than a light being shone on their stupidity after all.

        • How you got concentration camps out of my statement of having pity for you is beyond me.

          Nevertheless, you still have my pity and I wish you have an excellent evening. 🙂

        • And it’s “drivel” not “dribble.” One is rot and poppycock, the other is what I do with a basketball. You’re welcome.

        • nice non sequitur hmmmmmm.

          how you got concentration camps out of that really blows my mind away.

      • By the wrong hands, I mean giving AQ any new ideas.

        Not that the “Liberator” is suitable for use as a skyjacking weapon, but on principle.

        Also, I was merely illustrating their logic – not really agreeing.

  42. This is getting exciting.

    All in a few recent months we have had militarized police action and martial law in response to a crazy ex-cop;

    executive orders to attack the 2nd Amendment;

    militarized police action, martial law, and shelter-in-place orders in response to two young adults with a firecracker bomb;

    and now censorship of open source knowledge and seizure of private property as retribution for political protest.

  45. To all the people worried about terrorists printing their own guns and using then against us… I would imagine that in parts of the world where terrorists operate, a full auto AK is both cheaper and easier come by than a 3d printer.

  46. Cody Wilson needs to watch his back.

    Seriously. I’m not worried about him ending up in prison. I’m worried about him ending up dead. I don’t want to open TTAG one morning and learn that his body was fished out of a river in his car that he drove drunk over a bridge, or find out that he was discovered hanging in his closet with a regretful suicide note that was conveniently typed out…

    He needs to not travel alone. He needs to not sleep alone. He needs to make it clear to everyone he knows that he is not suicidal. He needs to vary his routine, if not randomize his routine totally

    I would not be at all surprised if he’s a marked-man now. He’s getting the attention of some very high-up people methinks, and his life-expectancy is dropping every time he speaks for the cameras…

  48. Can you change the Headline for this thread? This foolishness didn’t come from DOD.

    This orginates in the house of leftist politics at the Dept of State. Who apparently not only thinks they control DOD but also are the thought police.

    If Pres Bush #2 had cleaned house at State when he had the chance, rather than keeping the infestation of Clintonistas, the US and world would be a much better place. The Hilary types now have over 20yr in control. Run by women and pansies.

  49. I’m glad that I read this thing carefully before forwarding it to friends stating that the US DofD had involved itself in Internet police-state matters communicating directly with a US citizen domestically.

    ‘BREAKING: Dept. of Defense Shuts Down Defense Distributed’
    — That is incorrect. It says:
    “The Department of State, Bureau of Political Military Affairs, Office of Defense Trade Controls Compliance, Enforcement Division (DTCC/END)”

  50. Like we all didn’t expect the most tyrannical regime in American history to come after a symbol of freedom and self-reliance? One more nail in the coffin.

    The founding fathers would be shooting by now.

    • Your sentiment is understood, but if you look at the history of events, we tried absolutely everything we could to avoid war – even up to debating whether or not we really should or shouldn’t fight after people in Massachusetts had been gunned down.

      Once the gloves came off, they completely came off and many men showed a heroic streak of character that has stood them as legends ever since. But up until that moment came, they much preferred to remain farmers and bookkeepers.

      The same thing we’re going to do until the moment comes.

  51. Its ok… if you didn’t get the download you can get it here:

    First download uTorrent or similar:
    http://www.utorrent.com/downloads/complete/os/win

    Install it… its a great little torrent tool.
    open it up…
    Go to file >> “Add torrent from URL”

    Paste this in there :

    magnet:?xt=urn:btih:0ad7b4f1833e01a3f2fa5613d8fc46de622339ac&dn=DefDist+Defcad+Liberator+Printable+Gun&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.openbittorrent.com%3A80&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.publicbt.com%3A80&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.istole.it%3A6969&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.ccc.de%3A80

    Click “OK” and then immediately profit from shared global information (liberator.zip)

  54. I got a letter from the government the other day,
    I opened and read it
    It said they were suckers…

    I have an idea for Schumer et al…
    stop attempting to destroy the Constitution and maybe the number of people who think they might have to take up arms against the government will drop below 29%

  55. I’m sure people have anticipated that the files would be removed and copied them. Defense distributed can obviously only remove the files it has control over. Also, the legal reasoning seems shakey, as I’m sure the intent was to regulate international transfer of actual arms, not electronic blueprints. .

  58. Darn I was going to download this to replace all my guns I lost in that boating accident. I was exited that it was made of plastic so it would float in case of another capsize.

  59. “The Dirty Diane” 1/2-28 to 3/4-16 STP S3600 oil filter silencer adapter.”

    HOLY SHIT! Where do I find this?… er… I mean, I’m going to go fill out the proper paperwork and purchase a suppressor through the proper channels.

  61. Pirate Bay Takes Over Distribution of Censored 3D Printable Gun
    http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-takes-over-distribution-of-censored-3d-printable-gun-130510/

    A few days after the blueprints for the world’s first printable gun were published online, Defense Distributed has been asked by the State Department to pull them down, citing possible arms trafficking violations. The blueprints, however, are still available on The Pirate Bay and many other file-sharing sites, which adds a 3D chapter to the IP enforcement debate.The Pirate Bay says it welcomes the blueprints and has no intention of taking the files down.

    While DEFCON promptly complied with the request to remove access to the design, it was shared so widely during the short window of availability that it is now virtually impossible to prevent any further distribution. Currently, there appears to be several torrents available for the design at The Pirate Bay and the site informs us that these will not be censored.

    “TPB has for close to 10 years been operating without taking down one single torrent due to pressure from the outside. And it will never start doing that,” A Pirate Bay insider told TorrentFreak.

    http://torrentfreak.com/images/defcad-tpb.png

  62. The Feds are saying that you can’t make any drawings of any arms on the Munitions List and put them on the internet. That means technically speaking if you draw some conceptual drawings of futuristic weapons or armored vehicles or submarines and put your drawings, which may just be conceptual artwork, on the internet, the Feds are going to come and prosecute you for illegal export of technical data for munitions list items. Totally absurd and so is this case.

  63. Hmm it looks like your blog ate my first comment (it was super long) so I guess I’ll just sum it up what I submitted and say, I’m thoroughly enjoying your blog. I too am an aspiring blog blogger but I’m still new to everything. Do you have any recommendations for first-time blog writers? I’d definitely appreciate it.

  64. An impressive share! I have just forwarded this onto a coworker who was
    conducting a little research on this. And he in fact bought
    me breakfast because I stumbled upon it for him… lol. So let me reword this….

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