Right now, 3D-printed guns are a big topic of discussion. Like, seriously, we’ve had trouble finding stories that weren’t about “ghost guns” and 3D-printed firearms ever since an arrest was made in UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s murder.
But interestingly, one of the stories we could find involved a man named Cody Wilson. If he sounds familiar to you, he’s the guy behind the first all-3D-printed gun, called The Liberator after the single-shot pistol from World War II.
Yet he’s not in the news so much for 3D printing guns but because of another venture of his. See, he developed a series of desktop milling machines that can create steel-framed handguns from a block of metal. He’s also now made one that isn’t specifically for guns. Yet he’s running into some difficulties, and that prompted him to seek out legal remedies.
A U.S. gun rights activist has sued crowdfunding platforms Kickstarter and Indiegogo, accusing them of choking off funding for his desktop milling machine that can be used to manufacture parts for untraceable “ghost” guns.
Cody Wilson’s company Coast Runner Inc sued the crowdsourcing sites on Monday in federal court in Midland, Texas, alleging, opens new tab they illegally dropped promotional campaigns for his company’s milling machine due to Wilson’s political views.
Coast Runner, represented by former Texas state solicitor general Judd Stone II’s law firm, said Kickstarter and Indiegogo violated U.S. and Texas antitrust laws by conspiring to deny the company “access to the marketplace and to free trade.” The complaint also alleged interference with the company’s contracts.
Kickstarter, Indiegogo and LaunchBoom, a crowdfunding consulting firm that was also named as a defendant, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
It’s important to remember that this one isn’t designed to create firearms or firearm parts, though I suspect you could probably make such things on it.
Regardless, it’s not like crowdfunding platforms don’t allow campaigns for things like knives, which might not be designed as weapons in this day and age but are most definitely used as such.
See, if this was about the Ghost Gunner machines, we could perhaps have a discussion about whether this is right or not, but it would at least be something firearm-related.
The Coast Runner is different. While it works by removing material rather than adding it, the end result of what it produces is no different than what a 3D printer might create. I’ve never seen any of the crowdfunding platforms have an issue with anything like that.
So, I think Wilson has a point. They’re cutting him off because of his political views, and if that’s the case, they have a problem. That’s going to land them in some hot water and it’ll be on them to somehow prove that they just don’t support crowdfunding for new technology as a whole or that there was something about this particular device that fell within the existing framework of what’s disallowed.
And I honestly don’t know that they’ll be able to do it.
If they can’t, Wilson wins. Just what that will look like doesn’t seem to be described in any way, but I wouldn’t be surprised if crowdfunding pay for it anyway, even if it’s because Indiegogo and Kickstarter have to pay for it out of their own pocket.
Read the full article here
