HA! Man Behind The 3-D Printed Gun Debate Symbolically 'Flips The Bird' To Gun Control Advocates

Beth Baumann | August 28, 2018 9:00 PM

A U.S. District Court Judge on Monday ruled that Cody Wilson and his company, Defense Distributed, could not provide blueprints for 3-D printed guns. Wilson, however, has a different interpretation of the ruling. He believes that the judge's ruling said one thing: that he must charge to distribute his files.

"This judge's order for simply giving things away was only an authorization that we can sell it, that we can mail it, that would could email it, that we could provide it by secure transfer. I will be doing all of those things now." Wilson said during a press conference Tuesday morning. "A lot of this was about principle for me. For many years I simply chose not to sell these files because I'm an open source activist. I believe in demonstrating that there was a right to commit this information to the public domain. And so, for many years, I chose not to sell the files."

According to Wilson, his press conference was designed to correct media misinformation and headlines that state downloadable guns are now illegal, something Wilson said has never been the case.

"Everyone in America who wants the files will get the files," Wilson said. "They're allowed to name their own price on our website. Making the money isn't important to me."

"I'm happy now, at this point, to become the iTunes of downloadable guns..." Wilson said with a snicker.

"The Internet has largely spoken on this issue. They've decided that censorship is not something that will abide and certainly something that they can afford to correct," Wilson told reporters.

All money that is raised from people downloading the files will go towards Defense Distributed's lawsuits. Once the company reaches their fundraising goal of $400,000 Wilson will announce how they money is being utilized. Interestingly enough, about $100,000 of the $200,000 that the company has raised has come in the form of cryptocurrency.