Homemade gun guru Cody Wilson claims YouTube has scrapped a video of his recent news conference, at which the controversial figure announced the availability of his gun blueprints for purchase. Furthermore, the video promotes a fundraiser to assist him with legal bills accrued in his battle over the plans.
Speaking to The Washington Free Beacon, Wilson explained that his videos were banned due to their relation to firearms sales:
“YouTube removed my fundraising video and my press conference. They’re saying it’s ‘promotion of the sale of firearms.’ They removed every video I’ve ever made on (gun-making machine) Ghost Gunner and (3-D gun site) DEFCAD. (The video of the) press conference, attended by the NYT and AP, is still gone.”
An August 31st email from YouTube confirms the deletion due to conflict with the social media site’s policies:
“As you may know, our Community Guidelines describe which content we allow—and don’t allow—on YouTube. … Your video Cody Wilson—Press Conference—Defense Distributed—8-28-2018 was flagged to us for review. Upon review, we’ve determined that it violates our guidelines and we’ve removed it from YouTube.”
Despite being removed from Wilson’s channel, the video can be found on YouTube under a different account. During the 45 minute briefing, Wilson — deemed by Wired magazine 2012’s fifth most dangerous person in the world — states a goal to raise $400,000 in two weeks. He doesn’t think it will be a problem:
“I think now, with selling the files, you know, I’ll probably get there tomorrow.”
Cody is selling the files on his revamped site, DEFCAD:
“What I’m announcing today is DEFCAD.com, relaunched, with the files for sale. But there’s actually some subtle things beyond that. … We have an engineering exchange program; we have a library program as well where you can submit materials.”
Included in the video is Wilson’s address of the halting of a settlement with the State Department, recently imposed by a federal judge. Under the agreement, Wilson would have been able to publish his 3-D printing blueprints. The judge indicated it would be legal to sell them online or via email.
Cody doesn’t seem too intimidated by lawsuits:
“I’m happy that, even if 20 states in the union come to court and sue us, it slowed us down for like a week?”
Not everyone is excited about the firearm firm’s light-footedness — as reported by The Hill, 79% of voters frown upon the distribution of do-it-yourself designs:
Just a reminder to the gun extremists defending Cody Wilson and 3D guns here. 8 out of 10 Americans support a ban on 3D guns! https://t.co/u6nqQ5aDqy #Stop3Dguns
— Newtown Action (@NewtownAction) August 29, 2018
Other social media platforms have fired shots over Wilson’s blueprints: Facebook has barred discussion of CodeIsFreeSpeech.com, home to the plans; and Amazon will no longer provide webhosting for the site.
By contrast to some of the anti-2nd-Amendment crowd’s insistence, all the firearm designs require components in addition to non-metal 3-D-printed materials.
Wanna have a great time and learn something? How about you visit Jennifer Van Laar’s article for more on the judge’s decision and DEFCAD? But first, check out my coverage of the issue earlier on, here.
Regardless of the impediment placed by the court and social media, Wilson seems ready to roll, distributing plans that would surely make a whole lot of liberals hotter than a six-shooter.
For a snippet of the video, take a look below.
Thank you for reading! Do you agree with YouTube’s decision? What are your thoughts on the issue of 3-D-printed guns in general? Please sound off in the Comments section below.
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