By Chuck Lindell
Austin American-Statesman
AUSTIN, Texas — Cody Wilson, the Austin man behind the five-year fight in support of guns made on 3D printers, announced Tuesday that his company has begun offering gun blueprints for sale, saying a federal judge’s recent order to block access to the files applied only to free downloads from his company’s website.
Customers can name their price for the files — even offer no money — and Defense Distributed will mail copies of blueprints on USB drives, a secure form of communication that was not included in the judge’s order, Wilson said.
“This was not an interruption of our ability to share this information,” he said during a news conference in a downtown Austin hotel.
“Everyone in America who wants these files will get them,” Wilson said, adding that he was prepared to face additional litigation over the sales.
Money raised from the sales will finance Wilson’s appeal of Monday’s injunction by a federal judge in Seattle that sought to bar access to 10 files on Defense Distributed’s website —one file containing the 3D-printer designs for a single-shot pistol known as the Liberator and nine blueprints of guns that cannot be built without machine-shop equipment.
Wilson said publicity generated by the legal fight led to his company receiving $200,000 in donations from supporters in about a week —halfway to his goal of $400,000.
Defense Distributed also is offering to host third-party gun files on its internet site and split the profits 50-50 with the owners, he said.
Monday’s order by U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik, sought by 19 states arguing that publication of the blueprints endangered public safety and national security, ignored the fact that the 10 plans have been distributed to numerous other websites, Wilson said.
“Of course, you can go anywhere and download this stuff all over the internet. This action that the states have brought, and of course all this intense press coverage, already made sure that that stuff was going to be online forever,” he said.
“The point I’m here to make is, this judge’s order stopping us from simply giving things away was only an authorization that we could sell it, that we could mail it, that we could email it, that we could provide it by secure transfer. I will be doing all of those things now,” Wilson said, adding that his company received 392 orders for gun plans since the 50-minute news conference began.
Many of the buyers offered $1, with several offering $10 or $15. “I suppose this is mostly because people want to support us,” Wilson said, adding that several chose to provide no money but will be getting the requested plans anyway.
Avery Gardiner, co-president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, criticized Wilson for “actively striving to undermine America’s gun laws.”
“We knew this fight wouldn’t end with yesterday’s court order, and this is just the latest attempt by Cody Wilson to put his own selfish, asinine interests ahead of public safety,” Gardiner said. “In the meantime, we are committed to working with state attorneys general and anyone else who agrees with us that terrorists and criminals should not have unlimited access to untraceable, undetectable 3D-printed guns.”
U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, said he hoped Lasnik extended Monday’s injunction to prohibit the sale of the gun files.
“Insecurity is the real product that Defense Distributed is distributing. We must overcome this scheme to thwart all efforts to assure the safety of our schools, airports and other public places,” Doggett said.
