Plans for 3D-Printed Gun Released Online, Putting Legality Issues Back in Spotlight

摘要

The US government made a controversial decision to allow people to 3D-print guns at home using freely available blueprints from a nonprofit firm called Defense Distributed.In late July, the US State Department settled a case that allowed Defense Distributed to release plans online to 3D print a gun it called "The Liberator"-plans the organization had been trying to make publicly available for some time. Defense Distributed is a private firm "principally engaged in the research, design, development, and manufacture of products and services for the benefit of the American rifleman," according to its website.Founder of Defense Distributed, Cody Wilson,designed The Liberator, which is a pistol that holds a single shot. He first released the plans in 2013 so people could download them, but was legally forced to take them offline not long after-the recent decision reversed by the court. At the time, he claimed that the plans were downloaded more than 100,000 times in the first days of posting.