firearms

For months, controversy has been building around 24-year-old Austinite Cody Wilson, full-time law student and part-time director of Defense Distributed, a non-profit working to develop and freely distribute designs for working 3D-printable firearms. Even before Sandy Hook, their “WikiWeapon” project was controversial, placing the group squarely at the intersection of emerging debates over the uses and abuses of both crowdfunding and 3D printing. After the tragedy, that controversy assumed a sudden, violent urgency on the national stage, and Wilson became an even hotter media commodity. He receives death threats and strangers recognize him on the street. When I catch up to him, on Jan. 16, President Obama has just unveiled the most sweeping package of gun-control proposals the U.S. has seen in decades.