Cody Wilson’s dream of building a gun with parts from a 3-D printer is now a reality. The University of Texas law student and his team at Defense Distributed have finally perfected the world’s first gun created primarily with parts from a 3-D printer, which they have dubbed ‘The Liberator.’
After working on the prototype for months and finding a design that works, Wilson spent nearly 24 hours printing the pieces. Only one of its parts – the firing pen – wasn’t made with the 3-D printer, an intentional move to make the gun legal for use in the United States. He then tested each part separately, and last week he finally fired the homemade gun for the first time.
“It was a big question mark. I was quite nervous, excited, giddy,” he told The Blaze. “I thought ‘oh my, this is going to work.”
But Wilson doesn’t want all the glory for himself. He uploaded all the designs to DEFCAD, an online forum managed by Defense Distributed, and people are already downloading the schematics and jumping on the opportunity to make their own homemade guns.
“There is a compelling feeling that you need to have it, to propagate it, to spread it,” Wilson told The Blaze.
But of course, it didn’t take long for gun control advocates to criticize the 3-D printed gun. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said it was ”stomach-churning” that people could ”open a gun factory in their garage,” while Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) demanded a ban on plastic firearms.
“When I started talking about the issue of plastic firearms months ago, I was told the idea of a plastic gun is science-fiction,” Israel said in a statement. “Now that this technology appears to be upon us, we need to act now to extend the ban on plastic firearms.”
Wilson and his team at Defense Distributed aren’t phased by the backlash, however. “Since its inception, it has been legal in the USA to fashion your own firearm, and to talk about doing so,” the company’s website boasts. “When we say universal access to the firearm, we mean it.”
Watch wilson fire the “Liberator” below.
