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US State Department Halts 3-D Gun Production: Demands Removal Of All Online Blueprints
Three days ago, in an article that looked at the convergence of 3-D printing and the 2nd Amendment, we presented "the Liberator" - the world's first fully 3-D printed firearm. The name was aptly chosen because courtesy of its creator, 25-year old UofT law student Cody Wilson, and his non-profit group Defense Distributed, its online blueprint and assembly instructions liberated "anyone to be able to download and print a gun with no serial number, in the privacy of their garage" in effect completely circumventing any gun control/distribution laws, background checks and other regulatory hurdles of an increasingly authoritarian government. In fact, we were counting the number of days before some US Federal agency would come knocking on Cody Wilson's door and involved that other key Amendment - the First, by either "disappearing him" or politely enforcing a permanent Cease and Desist of all production, including, of course, the removal of all online "liberating" blueprints. We didn't have long to wait - it took just one week.
As Tech Crunch reports, "the State Department has demanded that new blueprints for a fully 3-D-printed gun be taken offline just a week after they were posted. The Office of Defense Trade Controls Compliance is forcing outspoken Second Amendment crusader Cody Wilson to remove the downloadable 3-D printer files from Defcad.org under expert laws known as the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR)."
"Until the Department provides Defense Distributed with final [commodity jurisdiction] determinations, Defense Distributed should treat the above technical data as ITAR-controled,” reads the State Department order, seen below in its entirety.
Specifically, the Dept of State claims that under "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 transferring technical data to a foreign person, whether in the United States or abroad, is considered an expoert under [ ] ITAR." And since by implication this means that all the data can be seen by at least one foreigner, "this means that all such data should be removed from public access immediately."
Naturally, Cody would be stupid to fight the US government on this one, which is why he won't. "We have to comply" he told Forbes.
However, courtesy of the magic of the internet, taking down his files does nothing for the some 100,000 downloads of the entire blueprint set, distributed among various nodes, and are now held, in one instance, in Kim Dotcom's offshore New Zealand servers, where not even the long hand of John Kerry can reach. And just as a backup, the files have also been uploaded to the decentralized bittorrent database, Pirate Bay.
More interesting will be whether the PGP case study of anti-Big Brother retaliation applies in the Liberator case. As TechCrunch explains:
According to Forbes’ Andy Greenberg, Wilson sees parallels between his strife and the governments abandoned attempts at censoring military-grade encryption software. In the 1990s inventor Phil Zimmermann released software, PGP, so difficult to crack that it could have permitted malicious actors from hiding information from law enforcement. Wilson believes public pressure ultimately convinced the government to back off of Zimmermann.
It’ll be interesting to see whether the government has any actual power to prevent the propagation of 3-D gun blueprints.
Since the libertarian community is quite adept at bypassing the tyranny of an encroaching despot, it has already made the pre-banned files widely available to anyone who wishes to access them. The links, courtesy of SHTFplan.com, are below:
- Pirate Bay torrent download information: http://thepiratebay.sx/torrent/8449468/Liberator_-_First_3D_Printable_Gun
- Or at: http://thepiratebay.sx/torrent/8444391/DefDist_Liberator_Pistol
- ZIP FILE: http://www.fatguyinmontana.com/2013/05/07/defense-distributed-liberator-pistol/
- You’ll also need a 3D printer – the Cube 3D printer is available for retail purchase from Staples at a cost of $1299.
Finally, as a warning to those who wish to take the Federal government head on in what appears to be its attempt to regulate decentralized gun creation, SHTFplan also presents the following warning.
An administrator at the DefCad forums posted the following warning regarding the government’s takedown and the current status of The Liberator and 3D firearms based on its plans:
I’ll be bringing in legal authority and FAQ, but for now, if you are not a registered FFL/SOT:
1. DO NOT print a completely polymer firearm capable of firing a bullet (barrel inserts or no), as you will likely create anNFA regulated firearm. Specifically, you will likely create an AOW zip gun.2.
DO NOT print a completely polymer firearm capable of firing a bullet (barrel inserts or no), as you will likely violate the so-called Undetectable Firearms Act.
Not listening to items 1 and 2 means you are on your way to committing a Federal crime. Because of the public profile and interest over this kind of activity at the moment, you WILL be made an example of. You WILL go to federal prison, and you WILL never be able to own a firearm again.
The full State Department Letter, signed by Glenn Smith, Chief of the Enforcement Division, demanding the removal of the 3D gun blueprints is presented below.
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I am a little SURPRISED that someone has not made "plans" for a 22 calibre silencer - like something that would simply screw onto the barrel of a P22.
It's the perfect prototype machine for getting the "perfect" solution to this acoustical problem, and so what if you only get 1/2 dozen "uses" out of it - just print another.
potato gun with russet load
/sarc
Pumpkin chuckers.
Intellect is the weapon, the tools are incidental. This is so over hyped that I have to think the congress insiders have invested in this infant technology, and are abusing their political bullhorns to rope in the suckers.
After reading the earlier ZH article about the Liberator's first public outing, I immediately thought the US Govt would quickly introduce some sort of expensive licence control system for 3-D printers to prevent lo-cost Liberator mass production by unlicenced/undesirable persons.
Well, the fascists may still do that, but in the meantime they've chosen to pull the printing blueprints off the Internet. Too late as it happens.
Expect more controls to come methinks. The American people must be disarmed else the fascist takeover will be hindered.
Summary of the state department, espionage, treason and bb's mzm
http://chasvoice.blogspot.com/2011/12/real-mccarthy-record.html
You Americans are a bit strange about the gun thing.i get the whole "freedom" bit ,but WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU NEED A GUN FOR!
I believe in the right to support yourself and your family
I believe in the right to protect yourself and your family
I believe in privacy of thought and actions that do no harm to others.
But,WHAT THE FUCK DO YA'LL NEED ASSAULT RIFLES FOR?A duck that you can't hit with one bullet,one shot,is a duck you ain't eating
You need to understand the American constitution and the historical American attachment to gun ownership.
I am a Brit but strongly support responsible gun ownership in America and I would also support it in the UK too.
Citizen ownership of a gun is akin to there being an armed militia who's duty is to maintain control of government and throw them out if they become despotic, by force of arms if necessary. This important principle was lost in the UK/Europe a very long time ago when we collectively decided to surrender our position as the ultimate authority to elected politicians. And look where that's got us..........................
I understand the origins of it but realistically,billy bob from the backwaters is not going to ride to the rescue if Obama is a naughty boy.
Americans are equally if not more under the thumb of the financial and political elites.like all western cultures they are dumbed down and subdued with Xbox,Facebook,x factor and Abercrombie and bastard Fitch.
The gun thing is a historical quirk that has become an agenda for many to air their grievances about how fucked up their world is.
I would have no hesitation in sticking a knife in the throat if an intruder to my home but guns breed guns over the long term.
Like I said earlier,it just seems a bit strange to me.
realistically just one person, Dorner, scared the shit out of the ENTIRE state of California. Now imagine 20,000 of them. It can happen and overnight.
no gun = no freedom, it means that any freedom you think you have is removed at gun point by someone else the instant they know you have no gun, and I mean governments (domestic or invading) taking you children, your life, executing you all. Guns in your hands are the ONLY thing preventing that. Period. Not money. Not culture. Not "community spirit" and not "civilized society". Assault rifiles are for firing at lots of people at once and that is how you stay alive. Be sure of this: in many countries you'll see 10 to 20 people at a time, some gangs, some police, attack with machine guns to execute everyone, every man woman and child they see, in a home. EVERY LAST ONE. Having an assault rifile is your ONLY chance. Period.
Horse. Barn door. Pleasure to make acquaintances. OH SORRY, that was 20 minutes ago. nevermind.
Case and point for accepting bitcoin as a small business and not using credit/debit card processors like square.
http://gunssavelives.net/blog/square-payment-processing-now-does-not-all...
Square is an innovative payment processing that allows merchants to use their smart phone along with a small attachment and a corresponding app to process payments on the fly. Very handy for the small business owner.
However, one of our readers tipped us off to some new terms in the Square account holder agreement.
Apparently Square is joining several other payment processors and financial institutions and are now refusing to do business with anyone who has anything to do with guns, ammo or other weapons.
Per the agreement:
This seems to be a trend in the banking and payment processing industry.
Paypal has long had a standing policy of refusing to business with any gun related business, including for things as innocuous as gun magazines. GE Capital, one of the largest lendors in the US recently announced they would no longer work with the gun industry as well.
Frankly I don't have a problem with it either as libertarian since you should be able to choose with who and how you do business in a free market. As a business fuck them in the holes they breath out of and use alternate solutions instead. It is when the government steps into stop the alternate solutions that level the playing field from being allowed is when you should stand up and fight back.