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Monday, April 01, 2013

Printable gun distributor’s site apparently seized by feds

There’s not a lot of info out there as to why federal authorities have seized the domains defcad.org and defensedistributed.com. According to the takedown image, Defense Distributed is charged with Conspiracy to Violate the Arms Export Control Act, Conspiracy to Violate the Undetectable Firearms Act, Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering, and Criminal Copyright Infringement.

The last news to come out of Defense Distributed was an announcement on March 29 that they would have a 3D printed firearm by the end of April. Their first attempt failed after just six shots, but a subsequent design held up after firing 600. Given that Defense Distributed had already developed two guns (granted, the first design had to be considered disposable, but it did work), this latest announcement confused many. I’ve seen some speculation that they had developed and part that would make an AR-15 fully-automatic — i.e., a machine gun — it was never confirmed.

Of course, there’s always the possibility that this is all some sort of April Fools’ Day hoax/publicity stunt, but I’m not convinced of the legality of counterfeiting those federal seals.

Defense Distributed had previously made headlines with hyperbolic claims that 3D printing would make gun regulation “meaningless.”

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