Defense Distributed

Defense Distributed is an online, open-source hardware and software organization that develops digital schematics for firearms as CAD files that may be downloaded from the Internet and used in 3D printing or CNC milling applications. Its purpose is to support and defend the popular production of homemade firearms. The company is best known for developing and releasing the files for the Liberator, the world's first completely 3D printed gun. When Defense Distributed first published these printable STL files in 2013, the United States Department of State demanded they be removed from the Internet, citing a violation of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. In 2015, Defense Distributed, joined by the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), filed Defense Distributed v. U.S. Dept. of State in the Western District of Texas, leading the United States to offer a settlement in 2018. Since July 2018, Defense Distributed has released its files to the public domain at DEFCAD while federal courts have been petitioned to stop it. On April 27, 2021, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ordered the dismissal of the last suit challenging the settlement in Defense Distributed I, and the company has been publishing ever since. Multiple federal and state laws and lawsuits now challenge the legality of these publications, and the protected speech content of 3D printable gun files.