3D firearms printing group Defense Distributed has launched its own site for hosting gun files like those recently pulled from MakerBot’s Thingiverse. When MakerBot cracked down on weapons earlier this week, Defense Distributed head Cody Wilson said that a new site for the files was coming soon, and it’s now live at Defcad.org. So far, the catalog is extremely small: only about ten actual parts are on it, and there’s no upload system; instead, organizers have tried to find and post projects pulled from MakerBot and are asking for more files to be sent via email. It’s partly a symbolic response to MakerBot, which Defense Distributed accuses of “censorship,” and partly the seeds of what’s intended to be a larger site.
3D printed gun enthusiasts build site for firearm files after MakerBot crackdown
is a senior tech and policy editor focused on online platforms and free expression. Adi has covered virtual and augmented reality, the history of computing, and more for The Verge since 2011.
Wilson and Defense Distributed have had problems before with the Wiki Weapon Project, which aims to build an open source, fireable 3D printed gun. In October, Stratasys repossessed a printer that had been rented for the project, telling Wilson that the company could not “knowingly allow its printers to be used for illegal purposes.” A full 3D printed gun is still far away, but some individual parts aren’t too far-fetched. In July, a hobbyist said he had found success testing an AR-15 rifle made with a 3D printed lower receiver (other parts were apparently bought from manufacturers.) Defense Distributed later tested the same part on video, where the gun fired six times before breaking apart, apparently from the stress of recoil.
Update: As a reader has pointed out, the current number of items is eleven; a previous version reported it as three.
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