Announcing the new for-profit Defcad.com at the South by South West conference in Texas, Mr Wilson said it was an obvious next step for the wikiweapon project.
The digital blueprints for that so-called WikiWeapon, as Wilson imagined it, could be uploaded to the Web and downloaded by anyone, anywhere in the world, hamstringing attempts at gun control and blurring the line between firearm regulation and information censorship.
The WikiWeapon Project, hosted by a group that calls itself Defense Distributed, set out in July with the goal of raising enough money to hold a design competition among 3D-printable software models for a working gun capable of firing at least a single .22 caliber bullet that can be printed on a relatively cheap RepRap 3D printer.