Liberator (gun)

The Liberator is a physible, 3D-printable single shot handgun, the first such printable firearm design made widely available online. It was designed by the open source firm Defense Distributed, released to the Internet on May 6, 2013, and downloaded over 100,000 times in the two days before the US Department of State demanded its takedown.

The gun remains hosted across the Internet and is available at file sharing websites like The Pirate Bay.

Namesake and concept
The pistol is named after the FP-45 Liberator, a single-shot pistol designed by George Hyde and mass-produced by the Inland Manufacturing Division of the General Motors Corporation for the United States Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in World War II to be air dropped over occupied Europe as a tool for resistance forces. A project of the OSS (which would later become the CIA), it is thought the Liberator was equally purposed as a tool of psychological warfare. Occupying forces in Europe would have to weigh evidence of distributed pistols as a factor in planning against civilian resistance, which would complicate their strategy and affect morale. However, though used in France, there is little proof that the pistols were ever dropped into occupied Europe in large quantities.

The physible Liberator's release to the Internet can be understood as Defense Distributed’s attempt to more successfully execute the historical psychological operation, and as a symbolic act supporting resistance to world governments.

Withdrawal of plans and The Pirate Bay hosting
Days after their publication, The United States Department of State's Office of Defense Trade Controls issued a letter to Defense Distributed demanding the takedown of the Liberator plans from public availability. The State Department justified this demand by asserting the right to regulate the flow of technical data related to arms, and its role in enforcing the Arms Export Control Act of 1976.

However, soon thereafter the design appeared on The Pirate Bay, which publicly stated its defense of the information. Quoted on TorrentFreak:“TPB has for close to 10 years been operating without taking down one single torrent due to pressure from the outside. And it will never start doing that,”

The site would go on to issue a statement on its Facebook page: "So apparently there are some 3D prints of guns in the physibles section at TPB. Prints that the US government now claim ownership of. Our position is, as always, to not delete any torrents as long as its contents are as stated in the torrents description. Printable guns [are] a very serious matter that will be up for debate for a long time from now. We don't condone gun violence. We believe that the world needs less guns, not more of them. We believe however that these prints will stay on the internets regardless of blocks and censorship, since that's how the internets works. If there's a lunatic out there who wants to print guns to kill people, he or she will do it. With or without TPB. Better to have these prints out in the open internets (TPB) and up for peer review (the comment threads), than semi hidden in the darker parts of the internet."

Usage history
Israeli Channel 10 reporters built and tested a Liberator with a 9 mm cartridge, successfully hitting a target at a distance of several meters. The reporters later smuggled the gun (sans barrel and ammunition) into the Israeli house of parliament, coming into a short distance of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.

Variants
The following variants have been designed and included in the Defcad Megapack version 4.4 (Raiden):
 * Liberator Compact: A smaller more compact version of the Liberator, with a non-removable grip.
 * Liberator Hydra Rifle: A Liberator with a 16" barrel, vents to reduce pressures, and a removable stock.
 * Liberator Pepperbox: This design gives the Liberator pistol four chambers and acts similar to a single action revolver.
 * Cerberus Liberator: A Liberator that holds a long string of barrels, allowing for faster reloading.

In Popular Culture

 * S02E01 of Elementary TV series revolves around a murder committed with a Liberator pistol. The antagonist of the episode prints the pistol, uses it, immediately dissembles and dissolves the parts in Acetone to eliminate any incriminating evidence against him.