Earlier this week I had the pleasure of taking Cody Wilson, mastermind behind Defense Distributed and the Liberator firearm, out to dinner. Well, technically Robert took him out to dinner and I tagged along. But since Robert is otherwise occupied and can’t post at the moment, I get to write the story the way I want. Anyway, while we’ve already interviewed Cody Wilson about the nature of his work and his beliefs (we liked him before he was cool) it was nice to get an update on how he’s doing since he became one of the most feared and hated people to gun control advocates. And let me say that anyone who can make Chuck Schumer brown his pants is a friend in my book . . .
The first thing we wanted to know is if he’s worried about a possible stretch as a guest of the the federal government in one of their high security greybar hotels. Cody’s response: “I’m looking forward to it. It’ll give me time to catch up on my reading.”
As far as he’s concerned, the government might get him on any number of technicalities. Cody started listing the ways that Uncle Sam could justify putting him away, almost as if they were badges of honor — thumbing his nose at their attempts to control the proliferation of firearms. It fits well with the “crypto-anarchist” persona that he’s developed as his efforts with 3D printing have progressed.
Robert was concerned that Cody didn’t have a lawyer already on speed dial in the event of his arrest. We started spit-balling lawyers that might be interested in taking his case, and Cody wasn’t too impressed with any of them. Alan Gottleib was definitely a no-go. “Didn’t he support that Toomey-Manchin background check bill? No, f*** him.”
As the appetizers were being served we started talking about the gun itself, the Liberator, and its technical specifications. At the moment, the only working model is a smoothbore .380 caliber version that technically falls under the “Any Other Weapon” category of U.S. firearms law. Cody says there’s an alternate version available with rifling, but that the rifling would either not survive the first shot or the added pressure would split the barrel. He says he hasn’t tried yet, but based on his experience it won’t be effective. Translation: it won’t work with rifling.
We asked about shotgun shells, and apparently they’ve already tried — and failed. “There’s something about the rapidly expanding cartridge” that Cody says splits the barrel whenever they fire it. Either that, or the plastic wadding gets caught on the side of the barrel and obstructs it.
But the gun isn’t what the members of the mainstream media he’s talked to are most interested in discussing. They want to hear about the implications of the technology, and Cody says that’s exactly the way he wants it. “They all accept the premise,” he says, “that now that the gun is out there nothing can take it back. And that’s the way he wants it portrayed, as if it’s an unstoppable force that governments can’t control. That it has happened, and all there is to do now is watch the aftermath. Can’t stop the signal . . .
“I’ve talked to people who have walked into hacker spaces and seen a row of printers all printing Liberator parts,” Cody said as his roasted chicken dish was being placed in front of him. Hacker spaces are collaborative locations where exceedingly nerdy people get together, pool their money to buy equipment and space and experiment with technology, usually including 3D printers. Hacker spaces have popped up in cities across the world, including New York, Washington, D.C., London, Helsinki and Lisbon.
Cody says that there are even Liberators being printed in China right now, which is the reason that there’s a Simplified Chinese version of the “readme” (instruction) file in the download package. “I’m actually meeting a girl later tonight to translate it better.”
“The next big thing is getting a picture of one of these things printed out in another country,” Cody says. He says that he isn’t actively enticing people to break the law in other countries, but according to him a picture of a fully assembled Liberator in the middle of London isn’t far off. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if such a picture leaks out after he finishes his final exams this weekend.
As for his own future, Cody says that he’ll keep refining the design, but doesn’t want to stay in the limelight. Robert kept offering suggestions as to how to increase his profile and get more publicity for the project, but Cody says that he’s happy to melt back into the background once the furor dies down. But while the spotlight is still on him and his plastic fantastic, he seems to be having tons of fun debating the talking heads. Well, most of them. “I still have to decide if I want to go on Colbert,” he mentioned with some trepidation.
Results are showing 50% “strongly disagree…
Gee, Looks like our side is starting to speak up. Have they awoken the sleeping giant?
All these years. Standing my ground, throwing money about. Is this possibly a turning point?
Well said, RF. I’m glad “USA Today-USSR Tomorrow” decided to run it.
“Didn’t he support that Toomey-Manchin background check bill? No, f*** him.”
I think I like this guy.
1
I was going to say the same thing. I’ll be willing to give Alan a second chance if he shows that he learned from his mistake, but I’ll definitely keep a watchful eye on him.
Totenglocke says:
“I was going to say the same thing. I’ll be willing to give Alan a second chance if he shows that he learned from his mistake, but I’ll definitely keep a watchful eye on him.”
Naw, Gottleib really screwed the pooch on this one. Think about it, a guy that’s been in the forefront of the 2nd Amendment defense movement for the past 30 plus years, and he suddenly throws his “support” behind a legislative POS like Schumer-Manchin-Toomey? He sold out. For what, I don’t know, but political capital of some denomination changed hands….
Quote: “Cody says there’s an alternate version available with rifling, but that the rifling would either not survive the first shot or the added pressure would split the barrel. He says he hasn’t tried yet, but based on his experience it won’t be effective. Translation: it won’t work with rifling.”
Then why did he include it in his download?????
so that when some one has an idea on how to make it work they have the information handy to see if they are right
The next few years in this pursuit should be very interesting. New printable materials are being introduced all the time. At some point, it will be possible to use a more durable material for the barrel and harder materials for the rifling, and probably custom-suited bullets to work with it.
I admire this guy.
I like his pragmatism. My thoughts have long been this – the more the haters turn the screws (e.g., the so-called universal background check) the EASIER they potentially make it to produce, purchase or possess firearms as a general rule. Easier, not harder. Where there is a demand, someone will satisfy it – period. Even with the ammo situation as it is, sooner or later it will stabilize. Word of mouth is still the best way to sell a product, always has been, always will be. That can’t be controlled, although the haters will surely try.
And then there’s this: http://www.pagunblog.com/2013/05/08/with-friends-like-this/
Two rifling ideas:
1) Polygonal rifling, but with a very high order polygon, like 15 or more sides. The geometry of the polygon will become more like a circle as you increase the number of sides, so it will likely mechanically behave more like a circle as you increase the number of sides.
2) Rifle a small portion at the end of the barrel rather than the whole thing.
Either of these should be very easy to implement using 3d printing.
my brain was going the same direction, only different. Say 3 for the first inch, free bore the rest…
“But since Robert is otherwise occupied and can’t post at the moment”
— is that a hint that Robert has hooked-up with a booth babe?
Considering the gun legally can’t be sold and I believed transfered over state lines according to the federal government I wondered if the request from that supposed FFL acting on behalf of the USG to buy Cody’s gun wouldn’t itself be a technical breaking of the law even if the USG supposedly originally requested it.
So I guess this adds to Biden cliche that owning a rifle is like driving a Ferrari? Either way its a bad ad. I’ve said it here before, Beretta’s marketing and sales team has been sucking since Ben Cook left.
Bad…very bad
Maybe i should not say this but a man with a sword that knows what he is doing , Well let us say is a very dangerous fighter… the plastic gun is only a toy for now…
My god, it’s a f*n zip gun. A one shot .380.
True, its use would be to penetrate a security zone.
Maybe thats why politicians are freaking out because they are used to living behind a security team. They might claim it would be an airline hijackers gun but a hijacker would know after his one shot he is “Todd Beamer Let’s roll” DONE.
It maybe time to point out to them that IF, this one shot plastic gun in the hands of an assassin is so much of a threat to them, THEN what is a “10” or “7” shot reliable steel gun in the hands of criminal to us. The incredible hypocrisy of wanting to immediately pass a law that protects themselves from the assassin scenario, while attempting to pass laws that disarm my security team of one.
Has Schumer et al stated exactly what they see the threat of this gun actually is and to whom?
Politicians are freaking out because this is not in their control. They want control more than life itself. What’s the point of having power if you can’t exercise control? This technology has just taken it’s first step down a road called “A Gun for Everyman”, and they hate it because it bypasses them.
Don’t forget the NY reload. Although the pistol is bulky, it is relatively light and multiple pistols could still be carried.
He does need a lawyer on speed dial, but a good federal criminal defense lawyer, not a second-amendment lawyer. Preferably one very familiar with federal firearms laws. But the “good criminal lawyer” part is more important – that person can always contact someone else who is a gun law expert later as needed.
I don’t who who that would be in Austin, but I would strongly encourage Mr. Wilson to find out now.
Why do firearm ad voice-over guys have to that artificial basso-profundo mucho-macho fake voice? I don’t relate.
PS: The Beretta needs to go on a bit of a diet–a bit bloated around the mid-section…
My mother was an English aficianado, and she demanded precision from those that made a living with words. So for the journalist RF, when going from the large (Ferrari $100k) to the small (Beretta $1k) the term is not extrapolate but interpolate.
But for the gun guy RF, you’re off the hook.
Hey, just bustn’ some B.
Love your work!
The functioning plastic gun was the product of a contest: I know cuz I submitted a couple of ideas for it: one of which was “the liberator”. Even when I submitted the idea I mentioned using the original name of “liberator” for symbolic purposes.
Keeping things real – I am pretty sure I was not the only person to submit that idea. Heck the original idea was from WWII and TTAG did an article on it. With that stated I hope someone gets recognized/compensated for winning the contest even if it is not me 🙂
+100 nerd points for the Serenity reference.
These things should pop up in Mexico. I’m not entirely sure how popular 3D printing is here, but we need guns in civilian hands. Even if it is a smoothbore .380.
I’d rather have a Lambo…not that I have the means to get either…and if I did, I’d use the money to buy some countryside and set up a private range.
For sure, Lamborgini would be my first choice, Randy
I’m not impressed by the commercial, and the gun looks hideous. It’s interesting see all these designs that “make the AR-15 obsolete,” but still seem to fall short. Other than the SCAR and the Steyr AUG, I don’t see many AR competitors that really blow my socks off.
Beretta has had my Neos for over 5 weeks.
After a few contacts (web site states wating for parts) I was informed that there is a shortage of steel, no spare parts can be had, and no idea when this would change.
So in other words, cannot do anything but wait.
Is this the Beretta quality and service “500 hundered years….”?
Thought I would pass this along…
I completely agree with RF on this. Gun safety ads or PSAs are not the goverment’s job. Because the executive branch will be responsible for implementing the campaign/ads I am even more against it. This administration, being Obama, Biden and Holder, have shown their huge bias in the gun issue. Nope, I don’t trust them.
I’m stopping by Academy tomorrow morning to see if they stopped with the 1 box per customer limit. This is East Texas by the way. Last time I was there they had some 5.56 in stock and it was late afternoon which surprised me. Usually it is gone by the morning. I’m ready for this ammo shortage to be over with so I can start hitting the range more often.
You must have a nice little anomaly in TX. Ammo of ALL calibers still in short supply. Academy is still limiting purchaser to one box of each caliber.
We will know we are out of the woods when 5.7 x 28 becomes available again.
good supply here in OR. at 50 buckeroos a box tho!
Shearer and or korean…Thermold…
11.99 a box? Yikes.
I think that will likely be the new bottom dollar.
Nothing here in Orygun. Local Bi-Mart had some black powder. 5 bricks of primers lasted a day and a half. Course at a 1 “box” (100 primers) limit.
Ammo in not so common calibers. 7mm, 300 win, at regular prices.
Projos are starting to stay on shelves in every caliber.
I can’t believe the FF made the list of ugliest Ferraris! I though it was awesome that they did shooting brake design. I had the extra money, I would have bought one!
I saw three AR-15s on the shelf at wallyworld this morning. No ammo to speak of. Yesterday, at another walmart, 7 or 8 100 round boxes each of 9mm and .380. I think the panic buying of guns is largely over, and slowly getting back to the point of stores keeping stock on the shelves and being able to order what you want. Ammo is another matter. Even those who didn’t panic buy a gun still stocked up on ammo during this, and all those new panic bought guns need food too. I hit the stores fairly often looking for ammo, I don’t foresee the shelves full for some time.
Not even close.
Sub
$0.16 .22,
$0.60 .223/5.56
$0.30 9mm
All sell out instantly online.
lets vote
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/05/08/gun-safety-ads-editorials-debates/2145439/
Vegas (at least in the SE/SW areas):
• Walmart: Unless you want .270 or .300 mag, its still a ghost town on the ammo shelves. Every now and then ye’ old Tula steel-cased 7.62×39 can be found (limit 3)
• BassPro: Affordable ammo is OOS for .223/308/7.62×39/9mm/.45. Oddly, .40 can be found sometimes. Personal Defense and more expensive target/match grades of the listed rifle ammo can still be found.
• Big5: Don’t make me laugh.
• Private shops/combo ranges: Hit or miss. When in stock, .223 still gets a $600/case price tag.
Overall FA’s themselves are mostly back in stock. Prices are still at a slight-to-OMG premium. Varies by reseller. Backpage trolls are still trying to gouge the crap out of the local market. Who is actually buying from these “$1500 for a M&P15 Sport” guys?
Powder? Some availability at smaller stores. Primers. Varies from nothing to randome backpagers selling 1K-5K lots (sometimes at a decent price). My Midway/Cabelas/Brownells powder and primer backorders continue to trickle in, so, while not exactly rolling in it, I’ve been able to keep up with my reloading.
I think we’re getting close. People have spent too much money the past few months and have stocked up to the extreme. Once we’re totally out of tax return season, I think we’ll start seeing stock build up in a big way as people who want to buy it trickle off. Already there’s no problem where I am buying .223/5.56 (including 1,000 rnd boxes), .22 lr in bulk boxes, 9mm, and everything else under the sun. Including AR-15’s for sale everywhere, crates of AR and AK mags, standard cap pistol mags, cases stocked totally full of Glocks and every other pistol, etc. It looks pretty normal again.
Can I make fake IED’s and turn them in for $100 a pop? I’m going to head to the thrift shop.
My shop in No. Illinois went from a 2 box per 9mm limit (when it was even available) to a 5 box limit with actual supplies on the shelves. So I’ll call that progress. Still pricey though.
Care to share the name of the store? (I’ll certainly understand if you don’t.)
If any one has not seen it yet if you get HBO watch episode 1 of VICE( granted a liberal slanted show produced by Bill Maher but do not let that deter you). They follow a Phillipino candidate on his campaign and basicly show the degree of violence surrounding the political process there. BUT what you need to see is the esential home grown gun building industry that is there, there kids are machining real full metal copies of semi auto pistols rifles etc. NOT in large scale factories but garages and jungle camps. If you want to see how the general population can supply themselves with real guns watch this and then come back and comment onCody’s gun. I love what he is doing but I think there are other ways to mass produce at the grass root level effective firearms- of course it would be completely illegal- but I feel so will 3d printing. It will be done but it won’t stay legal to do so for long.
NY left Remington a long time ago. Those who know the Mohawk Valley know that it is Remington. If they left the area would be absolutely devastated. I get that it would be awesome to put that on Cuomo, but there are real livlihoods and families at stake here. I’m extra sympathetic as a NY’er and, trust me, I desperately want Cuomo and his NYC communist pals vilified and ultimately destroyed. I’m just not certain cheering for Remington to move wouldn’t be a case of cutting off your nose to spite your face.
“Remington will not run or abandon its loyal and hard working 1,300 employees without considerable thought and deliberation.” Another possibility is to open a second manufacturing plant for the guns & magazines banned in NY.
Idaho’s Governor, and the mayor of our small town here in Idaho, have already invited Remington and a bunch of other gun/ammo companies to move to Idaho. Hey, we like guns, we are located on a freeway and main line RR track, and we have a State legislature that is 81% conservative Republicans. Drives the Dems nuts – Republicans with a super-majority.
Seriously, why is TTAG talking about this guy? He has the right to free speech. Ignore him and his power goes away.
No, all the local shops are still bone dry. Dicks, Cabelas, BassPro, local ranges, everyone. There’s still a crowd every Friday at 9:00am in front of Dicks to get the few boxes they bring in. They literally run to the counter.
james yaeger is giant douche. that is all.
The problem with Yeager is that his internal voice is actually his attorney telling him to STFU, then face-palming every time he sees a new Yeager vid gets posted.
No, we are not on the same team. Yeager is an idiot. What is more, he is a disgrace to all responsible gun owners and users. Here is why I think that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgKXRIGZcOQ
OP is exaggerating what his local area has. Pmags can be found everywhere now, and I don’t know who buys and uses 33 round handgun mags but they are around as well. Although regualr 10, 13, 15, 17 round mags for any gun is near impossible to find offline, or on in some cases. But as far as ammo the only handgun ammo in stock in WI is .357m and .45 and that is very sparse and spendy. 9mm is nowhere, .44mag is non-existent, some .22 with private stocks but nothing in stores. As for .223 crappy low grain is back in small quantities but I shoot single 80-90 grain which I reload so that’s never been an issue. 7.62×39 is everywhere but still over-priced. .308 premium can be found for ridiculous prices.
Yes some things are back but the prices are so high it makes one wonder why it’s back and who’s buying it.
I believe the weak comeback of ammo will just keep prices high and the panic buying will continue. The gungrabbers may have not gotten their way, but they got the next best thing for them, pushing out many financially of the hobby they love.
Online if you know where to go it’s there some of the time at the right times but price is and will be an issue for a longtime coming. I’d be amazed if they didn’t go after ammo again. If not restricting it taxing it more. I think panic buying is here to stay for at least another year or so. Until and if the ammo manufactures severely limit ammo sales to companies and government and LE for stockpiling there will not be more ammo on the shelves for civilians anytime soon.
“My enemies enemy is my friend…”
I know, for a fact, that Yeager recommends carrying a firearm regardless of legality. In other words, a state-granted permission slip is irrelevant to the free exercise of your inherent rights. Get a CCW, or don’t… it matters not to what your rights are.
Nothing wrong with that.
Lets all simultaneously begin a slow clap….
You have to understand that the change in tone PROBABLY has to do with the fact that even though his carry permit was reinstated by the General Sessions Court the State appealed that ruling to the Circuit Court.
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’ . . . .
I don’t really see any controversy with this particular video. Some of you may not be aware, but the self proclaimed “founder” of the militia movement Yeager refers to is rabidly anti-Jewish. “He” has called himself JB Campbell for a number of years and his screeds make the rounds on white nationalist and conspiracy websites such as Rense. “He” even created his own page a couple years ago. “He” claims to have fought in Rhodesia among other things.
I don’t actually believe JB Campbell is a real person, as you may have noticed. I once met a white supremacist who claimed to have met him but I don’t believe it. To say that the writings of JB Campbell make gun owners who would participate in militia activities look bad is a bit of an understatement. See for yourself at jbcampbellextremismonline-dot-com, that is his website.
This is the “militia movement” Yeager is referring to and they are indeed tinfoil hat types. I recall one time reading a JB Campbell article talking about how he was working to deprogram a mind controlled assassin created by the “evil Jews who run our government.” The man, according to JB, lived in Timothy McVeigh’s old mobile home and had found himself on Harry Reid’s property in the middle of the night, with a gun, not knowing how he got there. It is completely shameless nonsense.
so has the Reed management level idiot who made this decision been fired yet?