Owner of 3D-printed gun company selling blueprints despite court order

AUSTIN, Texas — The owner of a Texas company that makes untraceable 3D-printed guns said Tuesday that he has begun selling the blueprints through his website to anyone who wants to make one, despite a federal court order barring him from posting the plans online. Cody Wilson said at a news conference that he’ll make the plans available to anyone who wants them at any price.

Wilson said sales started Tuesday morning and that he’d already gotten nearly 400 orders.

That follows a federal judge in Seattle blocking Wilson’s company from posting the blueprints online.

Nineteen states and the District of Columbia had sought an injunction to stop a settlement that the federal government reached with Wilson’s Austin-based Defense Distributed. The states argued that online access to the undetectable plastic guns would pose a security risk and could be acquired by felons or terrorists.

U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik agreed Monday, saying the government’s actions “not only impact national security but have domestic repercussions as well.”

The State Department reached the deal with the company after the agency removed the 3D gun-making plans from a list of weapons or technical data that are not allowed to be exported.

Wilson said he anticipates that states may try to sue to stop him from selling the plans, but that he is raising money for his legal defense.

CBS News correspondent Tony Dokoupil spoke to Wilson last month about his goal of making blueprints available to anyone online.

“If I allow you to download an AR-15, the full plans for an AR-15, I don’t believe that I provide you with anything other than the general knowledge of what an AR-15 is,” Wilson said at the time. “I am no different from a publisher of information.”

Wilson said he will continue to challenge the federal court order.