Defense Distributed, the organization known for being the driving force behind the 3D-printed gun movement, is now licensed to manufacture and sell firearms and ammunition in the United States. Over the weekend, the group posted a picture of the license on its Facebook page in celebration. Now, the legal status of selling these 3D-printed firearms is completely unambiguous.

While it is legal to make firearms for personal use, this federal firearms license (FFL) enables Cody Wilson, founder of Defense Distributed, to act as a firearms dealer. In a piece on Ars Technica, Wilson drops some interesting details. While this Type 7 FFL does allow him to sell the parts he’s been making, he doesn’t intend to do so until he gains Class 2 Special Occupational Taxpayer (SOT) status. From there, he will be able to legally make and sell a larger variety of weaponry. (See: What is 3D printing?)

It’s still very early days for 3D-printed guns — the first of its kind was only made last year. Since MakerBot pulled gun blueprints from its Thingiverse site, Defense Distributed has been hosting these hotly debated files on its own site with the promise of never taking them down because of political pressure.

Defense Distributed talks a good game about how the man wants to keep guns out of the hands of citizens, but it is completely willing to work inside the legal system. These folks have an outspoken “live free or die” attitude and champion the use of Bitcoin for anonymous contributions. It seems a bit strange, playing ball with the system it seems so diametrically opposed to. Keeping detailed records for the government and giving Uncle Sam a cut is clearly worth it to Wilson, though. The money earned from selling weapons will go towards prototyping new 3D-printed parts.

3D-printing, especially at the level required to make a 3D-printed gun, is still a niche activity, so any ire from legislators is going to be relatively small. If the hobby takes off on a larger scale, and is embraced heavily by violent criminals, then the story starts getting interesting. (See: 3D printing with metal: The final frontier of additive manufacturing.) How would Defense Distributed react if a law was passed that effectively criminalizes the sharing of gun blueprints? Would it go rogue and take its servers offshore? Hopefully those questions won’t have to be answered. It seems like Defense Distributed is in a good place, so let the CAD files flow freely — at least for the time being.

Now read: 3D-printed 30-round AR magazine brings us ever closer to a fully 3D-printed gun