A Gun Printing at Home

Have you ever figured out how to print a fully functioning piece of weaponry out of a mere design, all this whilst hanging out in your living room? Chances are, you haven’t.

 by Guillermo Murillo

Cody Wilson, a young law student from Texas, achieved it, thus revitalizing a discussion that has grown in the past years about dangerous information available to any person, any place in the digital realm. Wilson manufactured a fire gun made in plastic with a 3D printer. The weapon is called "the liberator". Not only this, but the plans and instructions for making one of these are available free on his web page http://defdist.org/

This intensifies the long ongoing debate about how convenient this free and easy access to any kind of information across the web really is. However, the instructions for handling and making weapons are plentiful on the Internet. For instance, YouTube provides hundreds of videos that teach how to make a somewhat sophisticated weapon using only a metal tube. Anyone that types a few words in Goolge can find lots of instructions for explosives or guns fabrication processes.

Alexander Díaz is a judge and the author of law 1273 on informatics crimes in Colombia. He is a specialist in new technology and data protection. He says that the focus of the discussion should not be about the medium -in this case the Internet- but that the emphasis is the information itself. According to Diaz, in Colombia the rights to access information and freedom of expression are strongly protected in colombian law.

Article 20 in the Colombian Constitution is very clear: “There will be no censorship". Only children and the right to life are protected over these, and this under a judge’s consideration. Even the potentially dangerous information must be free access with a few exceptions like child pornography, hate speech, explicit crime or violence instigation and privacy invasion. Judge Díaz clarify a point: the access to dangerous information is not a crime. The colombian law is more about protect the private information and the freedom speech.

Natalia Castillo is a lawyer specializing in information law. Currently she is making her doctoral thesis about cyberspace and human rights. She explains the web regulation is very difficult to develop and apply. The cyberspace is a site without the frontiers that the countries has. A crime in Colombia can be committed from Afghanistan, across internet, and the authorities cannot control or punish it. She also says in Colombia do not exist a regulation to control internet information. Even which teach to manufacture or manipulate weapons. Anyone who wants download or get access to this type of information had the right to do it. But the next step: the fabrication, trade, carry and use of any weapon or explosive are strongest regulated. In colombian law the force and weapons monopoly are under exclusive control of State. The colombian rules allow to citizens had weapons whit a maximal capacity of nine bullets and forbidden totally the war weapons like grenade or modern automatic rifle. Something very different happens in the USA where citizens can buy a assault rifle.

Mark Torrás is the general director of EntresD a Spanish company which manufactured 3D home printers. W radio interviewed him. He says this printers minimum cost is U$700. But also there are 3D printers which can cost over U$ 40.000 because the works with metal, titanium, ceramic or fiberglass and many other materials. The idea is that people can fabricate at home their own stuff like shoes, glasses, car parts or cell phones.