The first 3D printed gun goes bang
The world’s first gun made almost entirely on a 3D printer has been fired in the United States. Cody Wilson, a Texas law student, has been working on the project for over a year.
“It felt good to make it, but it felt better to shoot it,” Wilson says.
Wilson’s company Defense Distributed had to clear several hurdles for permits in Austin Texas. And an original company that lent him a 3D printer repossessed it after concerns that making a weapon freely available would circumvent gun control laws. Wilson says that was his plan all along.
Basically we are approaching an age where personalized manufactur[ing] and freedom of information on the Internet will allow the production of things that otherwise — socially, democratically — [we] might not have access to,” Wilson says.
Wilson says people are already downloading schematics for the plastic weapon, called the “liberator.” But the gun needs a metal firing pin to work.
There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.
You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.
Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.
