RT asks: Is the release of plans for the Liberator Pistol going to help people protect their rights and freedoms, or is it a move that’s going to put people in danger?

Cody Wilson explains that he created the Liberator Pistol as a political statement and as a form of political action. The publication of this process (the plans for the 3D-printed gun) and the concept that the barriers to entry for manufacturing, particularly firearm manufacturing, are coming down is significant because neither the plans nor this new notion can be censured or expunged from the internet. The plans are and will continue to be seeded through bittorrent and shared through other means online despite the take-down requests of government agencies aimed at Defense Distributed.

He goes on to describe the act as a kind of ‘attack’ to counter the increasing paranoia and legislative momentum leading towards greater gun control. This attack gives the control and power regarding gun ownership and gun production to each and every sovereign individual, at a time when some politicians are attempting to exert their authority in this space to further restrict such powers to select, pre-approved parties and existing manufacturers. The Liberator Pistol, he says, is an effective way of showing off the power of anarchist market innovation through 3D printing and peer-to-peer file sharing technology.

Effectively, this creates a new political and cultural reality: Regulators are placed on a level playing-field, more or less, with Joe Average, who can now procure — or not procure, if he so chooses — an untraceable, unmarked firearm. At this point, legislative fiat is rendered ineffective due to the resilient nature of information shared online and the accelerating democratization of access to technologies like 3D printing. It is no longer unreasonable — either practically or financially — for you to make your own working, unregistered Liberator Pistol (namely, the AR receiver) by purchasing or borrowing a 3D printer, such as the Ghost Gunner. Indeed, it can only get easier from here on out.

And while some people might resent this change being thrust upon us, perhaps others — even if they don’t welcome the implications of the democratization of gun production — will appreciate the fact that Cody Wilson and his compatriots at Defense Distributed are forthcoming and transparent about their goals and explicit about what they think it means for us all: Regardless of Cody Wilson having gone ahead with this plan, crossing this kind of point-of-no-return, it was (and is now) inevitable that individual actors bring new and disruptive innovations — such as this gun and the plans to print it — to the world. Going forward we are likely to see more and more plans and home-made products that are illegal or quasi-legal, along with items that are considered taboo or controversial in society. We will see everything from 3D-printed sex toys to black-market electronics, children’s toys to pharmaceuticals, perhaps even 3D-printed houses and cars. Metamaterials (things like glass with malleability and programmability, e.g. solar reflectiveness vs. solar absorption, thermal reflectiveness vs. thermal absorption, impermeability vs. permeability, etc.) will enable the expansion of productive capacity further, leading to millions more currently-unfathomable inventions.

Cody Wilson and others that follow (even unknowingly) in his footsteps and publish plans for disruptive innovations such as these are effectively rendering null-and-void the centralized legislative bodies and bureaucratic agencies of the world, routing around them much like censorship on the internet has resulted in new and more resilient, more distributed solutions to the need for information and sharing and innovation in the world (see: napster; limewire; bittorrent).

This is the new paradigm we are entering. It is a world of radical and expanding individual sovereignty and decentralized and disruptive technological innovation.

How about printing yourself a jet (engine)?