Blueprint for 3D-Printed Gun Draws at Least 100,000 Downloads in Two Days

Defense Distributed's plans for the "Liberator," a gun that can be produced with a 3D printer, has proved very popular since it was introduced earlier this week. Andy Greenberg at Forbes spoke with one of the developers about the response:

If gun control advocates hoped to prevent blueprints for the world's first fully 3D-printable gun from spreading online, that horse has now left the barn about a hundred thousand times.

That's the number of downloads of the 3D-printable file for the so-called "Liberator" gun that the high-tech gunsmithing group Defense Distributed has seen in just the last two days, a member of the group tells me. The gun's CAD files have been ten times more popular than any component the group has previously made available, parts that have included the body of an AR-15 and the magazine for an AK-47."This has definitely been our most well-received download," says Haroon Khalid, a developer working with Defense Distributed. "I don't think any of us predicted it would be this much."

Greenberg noted in an update that the actual download numbers are likely significantly higher. The plans were also uploaded to filesharing site Pirate Bay.

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Comments

[Episiarch]

Suck it, gun grabbers. SUCK IT.

[Fist of Etiquette]

One hundred thousand new names for the database. Next up: DHS tries to download all the copies.

[Rich]

Next up: Background checks and registration for 3D printers.

Why does anyone *need* a 3D printer?

[Anonymous Coward]

If it saves just one life....

[darius404]

If it protects just one patent....

[some guy]

Next up: Covertly sending 3D printers over the southern border in hopes of ... something.

[Almanian!]

This.

Clearly, these people are all, Huttari, "Michigan Militia" types, and must be STOPPED before they commit Crimes Against The State.

We'll be taking your server, thank you. ROUND THEM UP!

[darius404]

I was on a comment thread this morning offsite where this one commenter kept accusing anyone who disagreed with him as being militia, and constantly accused those same people of claiming things they never said. It was ridiculous and hilarious. The poster was nuts.

When I see a bunch of people arguing there's no militias I know they're all militia.....

....I need to hear you say you understand that it's a strong liberal position to object to cutting off peoples' hands and genitals, and burning them alive, and beating women, and killing people for "blasphemy."

Otherwise I figure this is just another militia trick.

[Pro Libertate]

There was a time in these parts where a man could post a video or gun codes directly in the comments section. Yep.

[Fist of Etiquette]

YOU GO TOO FAR.

[Pro Libertate]

Y'all should embrace the freedom of unlimited scripting within comments.

[Almanian!]

Ah - and the Golden Years of no character limit. Good times, they were...

[Anonymous Coward]

Before the Darkness came...Gambol the Destructor and its false prophet, Mary Stack.

[Pro Libertate]

I could've endured her nonsense if the comments section were filled with videos and games.

[Almanian!]

I miss HERC. The rest - not so much.

[Pro Libertate]

He was great. The perfect insane commenter.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

I think I almost had a rational conversation with HERC one time.

[Zakalwe]

And then your meds quit working?

[Brett L]

I think I almost had a rational conversation with HERC one time.

As long as you were talking about EMPIRE or hating CATS, he was pretty sensible.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

He liked talking about the Bloc Quebecois.

[Killazontherun]

Herc was the man. He didn't just strap cobras to his ballsack like your run of the meal legendary troll. King cobras and the occasional anaconda slid the ground tethered between his legs.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

There was a day...

[mr lizard]

Plastic AK magazines suck. They jam on the plastic when you try to get the forward nub into the receiver. You can sand them down on the sides of the top or just admit the Russians had the right idea with stamped magazines.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

I have a bunch of those Bulgarian double-circle-10 mags and I've never had an issue with them.

[mr lizard]

Huh, I never tried those. I just have two tapcos. I guess they don't really suck but you definitely have to pay attention when switching magazines.... Or maybe a just have shaky hands from rockin out too hard all the time

[fried wylie]

just admit the Russians had the right idea

Undoing the work of billions in defense spending and ushering in an age of socialized medicine and unfettered state security machinery.....oh, well, I mean, at least the defense dollars wouldn't look like a complete waste then.

[Jingles]

Magpul just announced that AK Pmags. The current version is all-polymer, but the plastic they use is tough as nails--I'm sure you've seen the videos of AR Pmags being driven over by trucks. And they're working on a slab-sided version with metal reinforcement of critical components like the feed lips.

[Jingles]

*that they will be making

[H. Protagonist]

Note that DefDist just announced that the US Department of Defense Trade Controls has ordered the Liberator files removed.

[H. Protagonist]

File is gone from the DefCad.org website. Fascists.

[Irish]

How are they going to justify the removal of this blueprint when you're still allowed to legally buy the Anarchist's Cookbook? So I can buy a book with instructions to produce bombs, but the production of single shot plastic firearms is beyond the pale?

[SweatingGin]

I'd imagine they'll say that by putting it on the internet, it's being exported. It seems like Zimmerman's cryptography and the improvised machine guns book should cover that, though.

[sarcasmic]

Google up the banned book called Hitman. It's pretty interesting.

[Irish]

Google up the banned book called Hitman.

I'm looking at this now, and wondering how it got banned. According to wikipedia, it started life as a crime book written by a bored housewife and was transformed into a 'How to be a Hitman' book in order to appeal to the publisher's readers.

The information in it seems really suspect, and I don't know how anyone could actually learn to be a hitman from this nonsense. How could they justify banning it?

[PapayaSF]

It's the same story with the Anarchist's Cookbook, which supposedly has a lot of misinformation.

[Irish]

Yeah, but a lot of the misinformation in the Anarchist's Cookbook actually makes the book more dangerous because it doesn't describe how to safely make the bomb.

Apparently trying to create a bomb using the Anarchist's Cookbook is a great way to blow up your house or asphyxiate yourself with toxic fumes.

[sarcasmic]

Apparently trying to create a bomb using the Anarchist's Cookbook is a great way to blow up your house or asphyxiate yourself with toxic fumes.

There are some youtube videos out there of people trying to duplicate stuff in that book, under controlled conditions of course. Worth looking up.

[Brett L]

However, with a good high-school or college chemistry class or the internet, you can get around this.

[sarcasmic]

How could they justify banning it?

FYTW of course.

[sarcasmic]

The information in it seems really suspect, and I don't know how anyone could actually learn to be a hitman from this nonsense.

IIRC they recommend using an AR7. Not the most glamorous weapon.

[gritzly]

still on pirate bay

[Brett L]

What? Fuck.

[Rich]

Let the lawsuits begin.

[SweatingGin]

Holy crap. Was just about to grab those tonight...

[Irish]

100,000 have already been downloaded. I'm sure someone will be uploading it again to some other site within the hour.

[SweatingGin]

Also I'd imagine it's still on torrent.

[darius404]

It's already on Kim Dotcom's new file-sharing site. Not sure of a link for it, but you should be able to find it.

[General Butt Naked]

Google "mega", it should be the first hit.

[darius404]

I meant a specific link for the blueprint, but thanks GBN. Got that site nice and bookmarked now.

[General Butt Naked]

Doesn't matter now, it's out. Too late.

What are the odds that DoD has a DoS attack soon?

[Episiarch]

Exactly. Fuck you, control freaks. You lose.

[Fist of Etiquette]

That was going to be my "Next up" joke above. A DoS attack would be akin to buying up all the ammunition.

[Anonymous Coward]

Until the Department provides Defense Distributed with final [commodity jurisdiction] determinations, Defense Distributed should treat the above technical data as ITAR-controlled," reads the letter, referring to a list of ten CAD files hosted on Defcad that include the 3D-printable gun, silencers, sights and other pieces. "This means that all data should be removed from public acces immediately. Defense Distributed should review the remainder of the data made public on its website to determine whether any other data may be similarly controlled and proceed according to ITAR requirements."

That which is not explicitly permitted is forbidden.

/statist

[Loki]

And I only thought I fucking hated ITAR before. Fascist control freaks.

[Killazontherun]

Goddamn the bureaucrat man.

[Adam.]

Wow, now this needs to explode and people start mirroring it all over the world. I'm actually surprised their trying to stop it. Assholes.

[Almanian!]

I'm actually surprised their trying to stop it.

I must say, I admire that little bit of hope that this suggests you still retain.

[mr lizard]

Ya it more message than substance. By throwing their weight around they just give more legitimacy and motivation to the designers. Hell all they had to do was monitor all of their communications and ignore it publicly. It's not like they don't have the resources

[Brett L]

Can anyone email me a copy?

[Almanian!]

We'll just need to do a quick background check before we push send....

[PS]

It's on Pirate Bay--2.02 MB with tons of seeders.

[Brett L]

Okay. Cool. I'll pick it up tonight. I've been stashing these on local media. You know, just in case.

[PS]

Because you hate Amurka!

[Live Free or Diet]

It's on Pirate Bay--2.02 MB with tons of seeders.

Nice! Downloaded in something like 15 seconds.

[Rich]

Perhaps if you petition the White House, ... Nah.

[General Butt Naked]

Supposedly it's on Mega, too.

[Fist of Etiquette]

I don't know why everyone wants this firearm. It's ugly.

[Almanian!]

I bet a little lipstick and some rouge would do wonders.

[Rich]

"The Pigerator"

[mr lizard]

I'm just waiting for someone to screw a picatinny rail on it. Takticool is they way to a progs heart.

[Live Free or Diet]

Lingerie.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

It's s a good first attempt. Some tooling around in a CAD program may yield improvements.

[fried wylie]

That's the beauty. A year from now there will an entire taxonomy of variations.

[General Butt Naked]

Read a comment on another news site that was interesting.

The commenter wondered if you could be under the jurisdiction of ITAR if you posted a crude MS paint drawing of a zip gun*.

*a gun made out of a piece of pipe, a rubber band, and a nail; for the uninitiated.

[Somalian Road Corporation]

Probably.

[Alice Bowie]

All that is going to happen here is that the POLICE STATE will get tighter and tighter and tighter.

In NYC, for example, they would just stop and frisk blacks/latinos everywhere...for over 15 years. And, they had great success.

If people just started printing guns at home, the police state would probably promote something like STOP and FRISK for EVERYONE...like they do at airports.

It's not the good news you gun nuts think it is.

As a small percent of the population has been successful in destroying civil liberties in America, so will the Gun nuts.

Clearly, distributing blue prints all over the world for the creation for "MURDER EQUIPMENT" is a big win for the anarchist. In the day and age we live in, even if all the rubby ridgers, NRAs, and southerners decided to take over the government, they would lose. Just as they did the civil war. It would be bloody and rather expense, but the MAN will be able to TAKE you guns in the end.

[Mad Scientist]

I hope you have your fainting couch nearby.

[Irish]

As a small percent of the population has been successful in destroying civil liberties in America, so will the Gun nuts.

So when you're trying to maintain your civil liberties and the government takes them from you, it's your fault the civil liberties got taken away? I bet you think a woman who gets beaten by her husband deserved it, too.

Clearly, distributing blue prints all over the world for the creation for "MURDER EQUIPMENT" is a big win for the anarchist. In the day and age we live in, even if all the rubby ridgers, NRAs, and southerners decided to take over the government, they would lose. Just as they did the civil war. It would be bloody and rather expense, but the MAN will be able to TAKE you guns in the end.

75% of the military is from the south, rural west or rural midwest. Virtually the entire army consists of 'NRAs, Southerners or rubby ridgers.' Makes me wonder how the army will take their own guns away.

[Alice Bowie]

We'll use Drones.

Then, in the future, we'll use clones.

[General Butt Naked]

"We'll"

What the fuck is this we shit? You'll be sitting in your apartment stroking yourself to the dead bodies on teevee.

[fried wylie]

George Lucas, in Cooperation with The U.S. Department of Defense and Pixar, would like to present: Drone Wars

Coming to theaters when Obama's poll numbers drop next.

[Irish]

Then, in the future, we'll use clones.

Okay. I clearly was stupid when I bit on this, since you're obviously a sock puppet troll.

[darius404]

And even further into the future, we'll use droll crones.

[Brett L]

Herc, is that YOU?

[Oropher]

Don't worry gun grabbing liberals, the Department of Defense has stepped in, and blocked the download. Seriously they did, it's really creepy. Go check. defcad.org/liberator/

[ant1sthenes]

I can't imagine that Defcad isn't already happily gearing up for a First Amendment fight.