Gun rights activists win approval to post 3D printable gun plans online

The federal government has reached a settlement to allow gun rights activists to start selling 3D printed firearm plans online.

CNN reported Thursday that the settlement allows a gun activist who sued the government after he was ordered to remove similar plans from the internet to post the plans online.

Cody Wilson, a self-described post-left anarchist, had posted the plans for a 3D printed handgun in 2013. Nearly the entire pistol could be created on a 3D printer.

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Federal officials initially ordered Wilson and his nonprofit, Defense Distributed, to remove the plans.

The State Department said the plans could be in violation of International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), which oversees exports of defense materials, data and services.

Wilson complied with the order at the time, but sued the government in 2015.

The government has agreed to allow Wilson and his company to post plans, files and 3D drawings in any form, according to a settlement dated June 29 and reported this week.

It exempts Wilson and his company from restrictions on the export of defense materials, according to a copy of the settlement given to CNN by Wilson’s attorneys.

The government also agreed to pay nearly $40,000 of Wilson’s legal fees.

CNN noted that the guns will lack serial numbers and be untraceable because users will build the weapons themselves.

“We asked for the Moon and we figured the government would reject it, but they didn’t want to go to trial,” Alan Gottlieb, the founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, which assisted Wilson in his case, told the network.

“The government fought us all the way and then all of the sudden folded their tent.”