'Maybe I'll go to Hell, but I think it's a good thing' says plastic Liberator gunsmith Cody Wilson

Anarchy – complete with Phil Zimmerman's PGP lawyers

As a self-identified crypto-anarchist, Wilson seems to come from the school of thought that actively resists Big Government in all its forms. He also holds property rights in contempt after the US government's successfully stopped him distributing the plans for the Liberator in what he says amounted to a copyright lawsuit.

Defense Distributed's Liberator 3D-printed pistol

“They were saying to me, 'this data, that was privately generated by you, is regulated and controlled by the Arms Control Export Act and it is our property.' This was an intellectual property claim by the US government against us,” he said.

Is this why he's retaining PGP mastermind Phil Zimmerman's lawyers, we wondered out loud. “Hah! A lot of lawyers came to me. I always had at the back of my mind that they made their names on the whole PGP thing, and I saw a lot of analogies with what we were doing. The whole crypto-anarchist thing, how we were conversing with each other, the metaphors we were using... ” he trailed off.

“The state wants to be the controller, arbiter, or at least the possessor, of everything in every domain," Wilson said. "Culturally, legally … it's that kind of greedy, fascistic, powerful nation state. Why wouldn't you claim rights to data and information – what are you, crazy? National security by definition means you want to control as much as possible.”

This anti-government hostility extends to Wilson's views on how certain big-name corporations are muscling into the 3D printing arena: “They take anything they can from the open-source world, make some light tweaks, patent and copyright them, and then sue everyone. Anyone trying to get into the 3D printing space will be sued.”

Despite all his railing against The Man, has Wilson secured any rich backers? “I wish,” he said ruefully, while recounting that he once met the founder of Palantir, the CIA-backed big-data biz. Wilson didn't comment on whether that meeting was successful in terms of securing funding, though he left the impression that it wasn't.

“One day I'll be rich enough to be a friend of liberty – say, after that first $5m. But the reality is I have to fight for $15,000 here and there to keep going,” said Wilson. “Lots of money goes on lawyers and travel.”

A member of the audience at the talk asked Wilson: “Do you think you are a force for good, creating these guns?” It's a question many people think they already know the answer to. But the answer may surprise some.

“Giving people this power that can be used for criminality ends up with a force for good,” said a forthright Wilson. “More guns in the hands of more people leads to a lower crime rate. I'm interested in the challenge, not the ethics. What we are doing is traditionally sound … maybe I'll go to Hell for this, but I think it's a good thing.” ®