Cody Wilson, the owner of a company that creates schematics for 3D-printed guns, has begun selling blueprints for the untraceable weapons online despite a federal court order barring him from doing so, the Associated Press reports.
Wilson, who owns the Texas-based Defense Distributed, told the AP that he believes selling the blueprints online — rather than disseminating them for free, as he did previously — ensures his compliance with the order handed down by a federal judge in Seattle on Monday.
The Seattle judge ruled in favor of 19 state attorneys general who argued that Wilson’s 3D-printed-gun blueprints posed a unique threat to public safety, as they facilitate the production of guns that are untraceable and will not trip metal detectors. The Monday ruling extended a temporary restraining order granted on July 31 that blocked a settlement Wilson reached with the Department of Justice in June allowing him to continue posting his blueprints online.
According to Judge Robert S. Lasnik’s decision, Wilson’s First Amendment rights “are dwarfed by the irreparable harms the states are likely to suffer if the existing restrictions are withdrawn and that, over all, the public interest strongly supports maintaining the status quo through the pendency of this litigation.”
While the blueprints Wilson posted online in 2013 have already made their way around the Internet, and thus cannot effectively be censored, Lasnik found that there is a “legitimate fear that adding undetectable and untraceable guns to the arsenal of weaponry already available will likely increase the threat of gun violence.”
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