State Department Gives Up Case Against 3D Printed Gun Pioneer

The Department of State settled with the Second Amendment Foundation, Cody Wilson, and his company Defense Distributed on Wednesday, dropping claims that posting firearms designs on the internet violated an arms export law.

In the settlement, the State Department has agreed to waive prior restraint, which wasimposed in 2013 against the plaintiffs, allowing Wilson and Defense Distributed to begin posting gun designs on the internet again. They also agreed to pay for what plaintiffs described as a "significant portion" of their attorney's fees. Defense Distributed will also be refunded the $10,000 in registration fees it had paid to the State Department.

In an interview with the Washington Free Beacon, Wilson said he believes the settlement was inevitable because he believes the State Department had a bad case.

"I think by the end DOJ realized they don't actually want to argue with this because it's such a stinker from a First Amendment point of view," Wilson told the Free Beacon. "So, I really think they needed to get out from under it and they already had the export control reform so they literally offered me a modification of the ITAR. They literally rewrite the ITAR for Defense Distributed in an anticipation of the change in the rules. Who knows when that happens, like a year from now. I don't know. All this suggests they really needed to run away from it because we took it down to the mat."

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