Meet The Man Who Created The 3D Printed Gun (Scared of those icky guns alert)

Business Insider ^ | February 10, 2014 | Carole Cadwalladr, The Guardian

[2ndDivisionVet]

Having lunch with the 14th Most Dangerous Person in the World is less scary than you might think. Unless you happen to have a morbid fear of hipster beards, Cody Wilson, a good-looking 26-year-old who blends with the crowd in the east London cafe where I meet him, doesn't immediately strike fear into the heart.

He chats away with the waitress, discussing the possibilities before ordering east London's hippest sandwich – the pulled pork burger – and has an easygoing, amiable manner. He is, frankly, about as threatening as a barista. A barista who has happened on a spectacular method of killing people.

Last year, Wired included him in its list of the deadliest people on the planet, alongside Qassem Suleimani, head of Iran's special forces, and the former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, though Wilson's notoriety is not to do with human rights abuses and killing. It's for uploading a bit of software. A bit of software that could unleash a whole new world: one in which anyone can download a set of blueprints and print their own gun at home.

Wilson made news when he unveiled plans for the Liberator in 2012, but in May last year, he went one step further: he successfully fired it, and uploaded the plans on to his website, Defense Distributed. Two days later, the US state department removed them, but by that time they had been downloaded 100,000 times. This is a cat that is well and truly out of the bag. The 3D gun is with us whether we like it or not.

Mostly not, I would say. It's a gun. It works. And any nut with access to a 3D printer can print one in the privacy of their bedroom and then.....

[2ndDivisionVet]

If she's mortified by that little gimmick, imagine her trepidation at an average FReeper's arsenal! LOL

[roadcat]

And any nut with access to a 3D printer can print one in the privacy of their bedroom and then…..

I despise authors who write like that - "… any nut…". Yeah, any nut who gains access to the White House can destroy the country. Any nut with access to a keyboard can destroy a person's life. And so on...