When the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) issued a new rule to expand the definition of "firearm" to encompass "weapon parts kit[s]…designed to or may readily be assembled, completed, converted, or restored," Defense Distributed's Cody Wilson, creator of the 3D printed "Liberator" gun, did what he always does: He fought back.
Defense Distributed previously fought the State Department, which in 2013 had ordered them to remove the digital gun files from their company website. The parties reached a 2018 settlement allowing the files to stay up, and the 9th Circuit Court in 2021 ruled against the 22 states that tried to stop the implementation of that State Department settlement. New Jersey's attorney general has continued to fight Defense Distributed over the right to distribute its gun files and recently lost its appeal to move the case out of the Western District of Texas.
