3D-printed gun software posted on internet

Cody Wilson Takes Gun Plans Offline After Judge Issues Restraining Order - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Declan McCullagh:

August 1, 2018 - ""A few hours after U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik, a Clinton appointee, muzzled Defense Distributed with a court order Tuesday evening, the CodeIsFreeSpeech.com mirror site appeared. It's a project of the Calguns Foundation, the Firearms Policy Coalition, and other civil rights groups, and includes freely downloadable computer-aided design (CAD) files for the AR-15, AR-10, Ruger 10-22, Beretta 92FS, and other firearms.

"Soon after the court order, Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson announced that his site, DEFCAD.com, was 'going dark'.... But the court order does not apply to the advocacy groups behind CodeIsFreeSpeech. They were not named as defendants in the lawsuit brought by the Washington state attorney general. Therefore, they don't need to comply with the ruling....

''We, and many others around the country, completely support Cody and Defense Distributed,' Brandon Combs, president of the Firearms Policy Coalition, tells Reason. 'Some governments and elected officials might want to censor this speech because they prefer a police state. We don't'....

"Absent from Lasnik's 7-page ruling is any consideration of the First Amendment implications of censoring information about building firearms. This has been legal since before the United States was founded....

"DEFCAD.com's files are not only being mirrored at CodeIsFreeSpeech — they or something like them are also available on innumerable other sites.....  Look for Defense Distributed's attorneys to argue that this is yet another reason the temporary restraining order should be dissolved. A hearing is scheduled for August 10 in Seattle....

"[T]he Seattle lawsuit is one of a flurry of warning letters and legal challenges from anti-gun states aimed at forcing Defense Distributed not to publish its files. The company recently won the ability to publish after reaching a settlement with the Justice Department in its lawsuit claiming that restrictions on sharing firearm code violate the First Amendment — a clear echo of earlier litigation over encryption code nearly a generation ago."

Read more: https://reason.com/blog/2018/08/01/breaking-cody-wilson-takes-gun-plans-off
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3D printing creates a home in a day for $4,000 (video)

Startup to make 3D-printed concrete homes for US$4,000 | CTV News:

April 3, 2018 - "A non-profit partnership is raising money to 3D-print durable and affordable concrete homes in El Salvador, in an effort to offset the global housing crisis. Each single-storey, 650 square-foot home costs US$4,000 to build using a concrete-extruding printing apparatus, which is programmed to create the foundation and walls of the structure....

"Icon co-founder Jason Ballard says 3D-printing ... allows for faster, better and cheaper projects to be completed with much more creativity.... He says printing with the liquid concrete makes all manner of shapes possible, from traditional squares and rectangles to circular and spiral shapes. It also simplifies construction by eliminating the need for drywall, wood framing, insulation and other materials used to build the walls in traditional homes....

"Ballard and Icon partnered with the non-profit group New Story to launch their housing initiative, which is made possible by their concrete-printing apparatus, dubbed the Vulcan. The first home printed by the Vulcan I was built in Austin, Texas, with the 350 square-foot structure taking approximately 48 hours and costing $10,000 to complete. But Icon says its next printer, the Vulcan II, will be able to hit its lofty goal of building a 650 square-foot home for $4,000 in less than a day.

"Icon intends to put the plans for its concrete home up online, so others can use it once the technology becomes more widespread.... The New Story charity is currently accepting sponsors to build homes at a cost of $4,000 per house, with the cost of building a full community tagged at $400,000.“

Read more: https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/startup-to-make-3d-printed-concrete-homes-for-us-4-000-1.3869268
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Ghost Gunner enables home gun manufacturing

Guns, Code, and Freedom - Reason.com - Mark McDaniel:

April 2018 - "Cody Wilson ... a crypto-anarchist and serial troublemaker, launched the age of the digital gun in 2013 when he published files showing how to make the Liberator, a 3D-printed pistol. It set off a panic in the media and in anti-gun political circles.

"By late 2014, his company, Defense Distributed, had raised enough capital to begin manufacturing the Ghost Gunner, a miniature computer numerical control (CNC) mill designed to take an '80 percent lower' for an AR-15 and turn it into a legal, untraceable, fully functioning metal firearm.... A lower receiver is the part generally considered by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to be the 'firearm,' whether other components are present or not.....

"So-called 80 percent lowers (or ''80 percent frames') are ... only four-fifths complete. As a result, they're not firearms in a legal sense. Anyone can purchase an 80 percent lower and then use his own tools to do the remaining mill work, turning the object into a working weapon. It is perfectly licit in the U.S. to make a gun this way; outside of California, it does not need to be registered or serialized.

"For four years, Wilson has been embroiled in a legal battle over his work [with]  the State Department. Shortly after publication of the Liberator instructions, the agency forced Defense Distributed to remove those files from its website, citing violations of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).

"In 2015, joined by the Second Amendment Foundation and the legendary attorney Alan Gura, Wilson challenged the State Department's order on First, Second, and Fifth Amendment grounds. They later petitioned the Supreme Court for a temporary injunction that would null the take-down order until their lawsuit is resolved. In January, the high court declined to hear the case, sending it back to a lower court in Texas....

"Despite the ongoing legal skirmishing, Defense Distributed in late 2017 released new files allowing the Ghost Gunner to mill handgun frames in addition to rifles. In December, Reason's Mark McDaniel spoke with Wilson about the future of gun control, how a weapon can be speech, and where Western liberal decadence is taking us."

Read interview here: https://reason.com/archives/2018/03/03/guns-code-and-freedom
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Four freedom-empowering technologies

Technology That Enables Liberties - The Libertarian Republic:

April 15, 2016 - "The FBI would have you believe otherwise, but technology empowers freedom for both Americans and people all over the world. The government agency recently clashed with Apple for access to a locked iPhone that belonged to one of the shooters in the San Bernardino massacre that killed 14 people in December 2015.... Driven by the fear of terrorism, the FBI assumed it would have the public’s support against Apple. But the FBI was wrong — America rallied behind Apple and the FBI quickly dropped its legal push to force Apple to unlock the iPhone.

"Technology, privacy and freedom are big topics in 2016, and the case of the FBI vs. Apple is only the most recent point in the long debate. The following pieces of technology, both present and in the future, give you freedom and privacy, despite what the government thinks about them.

"Smartphones & Encryption: The default text message technology used in iPhone-to-iPhone communication, iMessage, is encrypted to the point that even Apple doesn’t know what you’re sending.... WhatsApp, one of the most popular messaging services in the world, recently turned on encrypted messaging for more than a billion users.... So now ... you can enjoy the same level of privacy.

"Tor & The Dark Net: While many people associate the dark net with the Silk Road, the online drug trafficking site that was shut down several years ago, it’s really nothing more than an encrypted version of the Internet. Tor uses several public IP addresses, so your activity can’t be tracked online, and you can build websites only accessible by Tor. So, yes, that sort of privacy did lead to the Silk Road, but it could also help someone organize a peaceful protest without a government prying in.

Bitcoin: Bitcoin is another technology that some people associate with illegal activity... However, it’s growing in popularity and available for more regular purchases. So how does Bitcoin empower your freedom? Imagine using it to support a non-establishment political candidate or to buy a controversial book.... The truth is, people can see what you buy with credit cards and bank accounts, but Bitcoin is a way to circumvent that.

3-D Printing: Also known as additive manufacturing, 3-D printing could be the most liberating technology next to encryption. While governments both in the United States and around the world regulate what you can and can’t buy or own, a 3-D printer puts the power back in your hands.... Now that small 3-D printers are more affordable, it’s realistic for Americans to own one."

Read more: http://thelibertarianrepublic.com/technology-that-enables-liberties/
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The Libertarian Moment is alive and well

The Libertarian Moment Is Alive and Well, Regardless of Rand Paul's Campaign - Tom Mullen, Huffington Post:

October 5, 2015 - "Rand Paul's campaign reported $2.5 million in donations for the entire third quarter, a precipitous drop from his previous reports.... That and anemic poll numbers have inspired many to not only pronounce Paul's presidential campaign dead, but to gleefully declare the so-called 'Libertarian Moment' over. Nothing could be further from the truth.

 "Anyone who believes the presidential election is a barometer of how libertarian America is becoming doesn't understand libertarianism and isn't paying attention to what's happening in the real world. Libertarians don't believe government solves anything, no matter who is running it. The purest libertarians refuse to vote on principle.

 "As radical as that might sound, almost half of all eligible American voters behave the same way, if not for the same reasons.... For the most part, they're not stupid. They just don't care. They may say they support this or that candidate when a microphone is shoved in their face, but in reality they live their lives, do their jobs and run their businesses without giving politics a second thought. This is an inherently libertarian worldview and it's growing....

"What Americans are interested in is the market and what it can offer them, regardless of what the government says or even legislates. Sharing economy companies like Uber and Airbnb are growing exponentially because they offer higher quality products at substantially lower prices. They are able to do so precisely because they either sidestep or openly flout the protectionist regulation supported by their established competitors....

"[G]un sales have exploded in the past fifteen years, despite strong anti-gun rhetoric following highly publicized mass shootings. This isn't limited to red states in flyover country. Gun sales have even seen a meteoric rise in deep blue California....

"Almost half of U.S. states have legalized medical marijuana in open defiance of federal law. Four states have legalized recreational use. They have consistently used the libertarian non-aggression principle as their reasoning: if it does not harm the person or property of someone else, the government shouldn't have the power to prohibit it.

"An overwhelming majority of states legalized gay marriage ... ten states ... through their legislatures.... [A] majority of Americans support gay marriage, but oppose forcing businesses to serve same sex couples if they don't want to ... perfectly consistent with the libertarian principle that government force should never be brought against those who have not aggressed against the person or property of another....

"The future will be even more libertarian than the present. Technology and the marketplace are threatening to render centuries-old government institutions largely irrelevant. What meaning will trade regulations have when 3-D printers disrupt the manufacturing industry? What will the who-will-build-the-roads crowd say to libertarians when hovercraft technology reaches its full market potential? How will the Federal Reserve control the economy when Bitcoin or its successors reaches theirs?"

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-mullen/the-libertarian-moment-is_b_8242024.html

Free State Project testing ground for freedom-enhancing technology

The Free State Project: A Libertarian Testing Ground For Bitcoin, 3D Printers, and Drones - Kashmir Hill, Forbes:

June 12, 2014 - "Long before billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel dreamed up the idea of a floating libertarian island nation, a 24-year-old Yale grad student named Jason Sorens proposed a far more down-to-earth experiment for those who wanted to live the limited government lifestyle: that a critical mass of 'freedom-loving people… establish residence in a small state and take over the state government.'

"The 'Free State Project' call to action was in 2001. By 2003, five thousand people agreed to take part and they held a vote to decide which low-population state would be the staging ground for the libertarianvasion, which would be triggered when 20,000 people signed on. New Hampshire (population: 1.3 million) won ... and early movers began trickling in to help the state fully realize its 'Live Free or Die' motto....

"Thirteen years later, there are over 2,000 Free Staters scattered around New Hampshire and the petition is now 4,000 signatures short of triggering the full move....

"I was invited to snowy New Hampshire this February ... because Free Staters were interested in two things I write about: Bitcoin and corporate privacy practices. I discovered that this isolated group has fully adopted Bitcoin, and that it’s extremely enthusiastic about other 'freedom-enhancing' technologies such as 3D-printers and encryption. Everyone I met in the Project owned Bitcoin and was willing to accept it for goods and services. Of the couple thousand people living there, at least seven own 3D-printers. Though the idea originally was to get a critical mass to influence the political process, many in the movement now feel that the freedoms they want may be better realized through technology that routes around the government rather than engaging it directly."

Read more: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2014/06/12/the-free-state-project-a-libertarian-testing-ground-for-bitcoin-3d-printers-and-drones/
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Gun made on a 3D printer successfully fired (video)

A gun made on a 3D printer has been fired – let's look at this in perspective | Alex Hern | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk:

May 6, 2013 - "The world's first gun made almost entirely with a 3D printer has been successfully fired in the US. But it's not going to herald an age of widespread weapon ownership, and it's certainly not proof that 3D printing technology needs to be controlled for our safety.

"The gun – called the 'Liberator' and produced by Defense Distributed, a group that describes itself as aiming to 'defend the civil liberty of popular access to arms" through "information and knowledge related to the 3D printing of arms' – is the second to have made the headlines in the past year.... All of the necessary parts can be printed from a 3D printer except for the metal firing pin, which is made from a single nail. (In order to comply with US laws, the gun as produced also has a 175g chunk of steel inside it, so that it doesn't ev evade metal detectors). It is a fullblown gun, and recognisably so."

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/06/3d-printer-gun-has-been-fired
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