It’s been coming for a little while now, but gun control vs 3D printable guns has been part of commentary by popular TV shows and fiction and then recently Defense Distributed developed and DEFCAD posted the first working (as in not exploding when fired) 3D-printed gun the “Liberator.” Of course, the US State Department took notice of this and apparently didn’t like what it meant: the department has sent a letter  demanding that the files for printing the gun be taken down.

A letter sent to DEFCAD by the State Department is reproduced in part in a Forbes article about what’s happened and it’s an interesting read:

“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 access 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.”

In response, Defense Distributed—who run the DEFCAD site—followed the letter and took down the files for the “Liberator” 3D-printed gun. The site now sports a line of red text across the top citing that “the US government claims control of the information,” and the page for the gun itself displays the seal of the Department of State and instead of a download is text that reads:

“This file has been removed from public access at the request of the US Department of Defense Trade Controls. Until further notice, the United States government claims control of the information.”

Cody R. Wilson, law student and founder of Defense Distributed, has also tweeted about the incident following the letter and the takedown. The tweet misstates that it was the Department of Defense who contacted Defense Distributed and shortly thereafter the website went offline. It is back online now.

What the State Department intends to do with this move is interesting and equally questionable. While there are certain types of digital files (or information) that can be deemed munitions—such as certain highly complex cryptography algorithms that cannot be distributed or exported—there’s very little in the law that actually enables the government to shop the export of simple blueprints or designs that aren’t already protected under other rules of secrecy.

If the move is to create a chilling effect for others who want to publish similar designs perhaps that’s been successful. However, as for keeping this design (or any others) from the public at large will be impossible, the gun blueprints themselves has been already downloaded over 100,000 times and its stored on Kim Dotcom’s highly-encrypted MEGA file sharing site.

This coverage will only serve to fuel further curiosity in the blueprints, torrents will appear, and more web pages will host them.

We’re only looking at the tip of the iceberg when it comes to 3D-printable guns and what effect this will have on the ecology of 3D printers and the interest of both the public and governments.