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“I think there’s nothing wrong with what we’re doing in a moral sense. We’re pursuing what we think is a step toward liberty and even if it scares people, well, that’s our world view—liberty is scary and increasingly there’s less and less you can do about controlling the way someone can fabricate a gun.” – Defense Distributed co-founder Cody Wilson in Gun maker: 3D gun parts a ‘step toward liberty’ [courtesy pcworld.com]

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22 COMMENTS

  1. If everyone was required to read and pass an in-depth test over that book, the country would be a much better place.

    • And given it is $0.99 for any Kindle reader, not sure why everyone would not purchase a copy.

      • Uh…. because they despise reading e-books? I can’t be the only one.
        There’s just something about a physical book that an e-book can never have.

        For one thing, they can’t ban it by sending a delete order, and that’s been done, in case you doubt that.

  2. Interesting that PC World is reporting on this. I haven’t read an issue of that in many years, so I have no idea if they’ve covered other political topics tangentally related to computing.

    • “Guns should be outlawed because they might be used in crime…” So say the grabbers.

      “DCSS should be illegal because someone might use it to copy copyrighted content…” So say the RIAA and MPAA.

      Some of us have been in the trenches on other fronts for quite some time, such as fighting the laws that make it a federal offense to enable a DVD player to “cut to the chase” if the publisher of a movie does not wish you to do so.

      PCWorld has reported in that arena as well, and in many others.

      While 2A is vitally important, there are other important fights out there – such as ownership of ones work, and intellectual and communication freedom.

      2A might just become relevant in the fight against many other evils of which most Gun People are blissfully unaware.

      • NRA, SAF, ACLU, EFF. As time goes on, they have more and more in common than not.

        Well, beyond suffering from severe cases of acronymitis.

  6. I remember reading Bastiat back in business school as an undergrad, in relation to the importance of the concept of opportunity cost:

    Good ‘ol broken window parable
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window

    Speaking of opportunity cost… all these resources being wasted by our government on gun control and laws that are ineffective in making people safe or reducing crime.

    Wouldn’t it be nice if all this time, money, and effort were spent on other important things: such as education, fixing the economy, or a better mental health system?

    Yeah, I know. I’m dreaming.

    • Neither education nor mental health are the purview of government; and the best thing the government can do about the economy is get out of the way.

      Just wanted to set the record straight on that.

  7. 1. Home gunsmiths have been at digitizing guns and passing the files for a decade. Anybody who wants to home CNC a firearm needs to spend 5 minutes on google.

    2. DD’s stuff can only be made on a ‘real’ digital printer – one most folks will never be able to access. They can get a used one for around $5-10K if they’re good shoppers.

    3. No, none of the companies that do 3D printing can print your gun, that’s already illegal.

    4. According to an article in Forbes last week, there will be a paywall on the downloads. I’ve been screaming this is just a money ploy since day one.

    5. A table top CNC mini-mill can be had for $2-4K all day long. Wanna make your own gun parts out blocks of (quality) plastic, aluminum and steel? Get one of those. Join one of the hundreds of home gunsmithing groups.

    6. Are you truly committed to additive machining? Get involved in the DIY SLS projects that are out there. Yup, laser beams. Sharks optional.

    7. Thanks to this nimrod Cody and Dumbkid Distributed, the real home gunsmith hobby is now fodder for the chattering class. He’s done nothing but enrich himself and draw unneeded attention that will almost certainly lead to new convoluted nonsense from ATF.

    8. If he really wanted to do what he claims, he could do with guns what google is doing with books – scan, digitize, post. But he isn’t doing that. Other people are, but they’re smart enough not to draw attention. There is nothing good in anything this kid is doing. He’s an embarrassment to 20-somethings with good judgement, and when the hammer falls on all of us, he’ll be blaming everyone but himself for the trouble he caused.

    • I don’t think that the current state of gunmaking or gunsmithing has escaped the notice of the bureaucrats and mandarins in DC:

      http://www.nij.gov/training/firearms-training/module04/fir_m04.htm

      Now, we could argue that he’s attracting the interest of lawmakers, not bureaucrats, but they’re morons anyway, and the only way to eliminate their special brand of stupidity would be to re-instate natural selection in human society. They’re going to latch onto something sooner or later, no matter how much one might want to keep it low key. Hell, they’ll latch onto completely imaginary threats, or threats that pretty much solve themselves (eg, sniffing glue).

      • You’re completely right that they’re aware. Regardless of the stupidity of many decisions that are made, not everybody at ATF is a sack of hammers. I’ve heard from credible sources the rumblings directed at ‘doing something’ about home gun making for the last decade.

        But there was never any public hew and cry, so the rational minds at ATF (I know, I know) left it alone.

        I’m with you that it’s the pols that drive most of the stupidity, and that’s why this whole thing frustrates me to no end. If he posted the g-code to half a dozen guns using readily available materials, that any guy with a few grand for a desktop cnc and some interest could make, and then spread that info around the gun world, I’d be a supporter. I’d even give him some cash, just because.

        But instead it’s all vaporware, at least compared to it’s stated purpose. Even worse, this is becoming more and more a blatant start-up hustle. All the warm Constitution talk was just to garner some funding and attention. While he rolls out his for profit business. All the while, poking the dog with his schtick.

        • Oh, I agree. He’s a law student, remember. Lawyers and liberal arts majors don’t do g/m code. But law students and lawyers do know how to wrap their fellow liberal arts majors around their little pinkies… and get the press really wound up.

          After all, Annie Coulter has made an entire career out of it.

          I’ve thought about starting up a web repository of actual CNC code for gun parts, but the controller compatibility issue puts me off. OK, if you or I flip g/m code back and forth, we know enough to ask “did you write this on a Haas/Fanuc/Yasnac controller?” etc and start modifying and testing accordingly. In the case of far too many people, however, they’d just load up the program into their controller and possibly crash a machine because they think CNC programming is like writing shareware on a PeeCee…. and I don’t want to hear tales of woe from someone that they crashed their boss’ $75K mill running my code.

  8. you must be kidding me. got 2 in collesg e and friends with many people who have kids in college. the books assigned are all very supportive of socialism, and condem any kind of opposition to government control.
    very hard left stuff.

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