Cody Wilson

Cody Wilson
Wilson in Austin 2012
Born	Cody Rutledge Wilson (1988-01-31) January 31, 1988 Little Rock, Arkansas
Residence	Austin, Texas
Nationality	American
Alma mater	University of Central Arkansas (B.A., 2010)
Occupation	Director of Defense Distributed
Known for	Defense Distributed

Cody Rutledge Wilson (born January 31, 1988) is an American crypto-anarchist, free-market anarchist, and gun-rights activist, best known as a founder/director of Defense Distributed, a non-profit organization that develops and publishes open source gun designs, so-called "wiki weapons", suitable for 3D printing. He is a co-founder of the Dark Wallet bitcoin storage technology.

Defense Distributed gained international notoriety in 2013 when it published plans online for the Liberator, a functioning pistol that could be reproduced with a 3D printer, allowing it to pass through metal detectors without detection. In 2017, Wilson launched Hatreon, which provides crowdfunding and payment services for groups and individuals that have been banned from other crowdfunding sites.

Wired Magazine's "Danger Room" named Wilson one of "The 15 Most Dangerous People in the World" in 2012, and in 2015, Wired named Wilson the fifth most dangerous person on the Internet.

Defense Distributed Cody Wilsons Ghost Gunner CNC

Early life and education

Originally from Little Rock, Arkansas, Wilson was student body president at Cabot High School in Cabot, Arkansas; he graduated in 2006.

Wilson graduated from the University of Central Arkansas (UCA) with a bachelor's degree in English in 2010, where he had a scholarship. While at UCA, Wilson was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and was elected president of UCA's Student Government Association. He also traveled to China with UCA's study-abroad program.

He is a former student of the University of Texas School of Law.

Career

Defense Distributed

In 2012, Wilson and associates at Defense Distributed initiated the Wiki Weapon Project to raise funds for designing and releasing the files for a 3D printable gun. Wilson is, to date, the only spokesperson on behalf of the organization, of which he describes himself as "co-founder" and "director".

Learning of his organization's plans, manufacturer Stratasys threatened legal action and demanded the return of a 3D printer it had leased to Wilson. On September 26, 2012, before the printer was assembled for use, Wilson received an email from Stratasys suggesting he was using the printer "for illegal purposes". Stratasys immediately cancelled its lease with Wilson and sent a team to confiscate the printer the next day.

While visiting the ATF enforcement office in Austin to inquire about legalities related to his project, Wilson was subsequently interrogated by the officers there. Six months later, he was issued a Federal Firearms License (FFL) to manufacture and deal.

In May 2013, Wilson successfully test-fired a pistol, called "the Liberator", reportedly made by a Stratasys Dimension series 3D printer bought on eBay. After test firing, Wilson released the blueprints of the gun's design online through Defense Distributed. The State Department Office of Defense Trade Controls Compliance then demanded that he remove it, threatening prosecution. They claimed he was violating regulations against the international export of unapproved arms.

On May 6, 2015, Defense Distributed and the gun rights group the Second Amendment Foundation filed a lawsuit against the State Department claiming a violation of their first amendment rights to free speech.

Dark Wallet

In 2013, Wilson, along with Amir Taaki, began work on a Bitcoin cryptocurrency wallet called 'Dark Wallet', a project by which he plans to help anonymize financial transactions. He appeared in support of the 'Dark Wallet' project at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas in 2014, speaking to publications such as ReasonTV.

Bitcoin Foundation

On U.S. election day, November 4, 2014, Wilson announced in an interview that he would stand for election to a seat on the Board of Directors of the Bitcoin Foundation, with "the sole purpose of destroying the Foundation." And Wilson stated: "I will run on a platform of the complete dissolution of the Bitcoin Foundation and will begin and end every single one of my public statements with that message."

Hatreon

In 2017, Wilson launched Hatreon, a crowdfunding site that provides crowdfunding and payment services for groups and individuals who have been banned from crowdfunders such as Kickstarter, Patreon, PayPal, and Stripe. It is notable for featuring controversial alt-right personalities Andrew Anglin and Richard Spencer. Wilson states that Hatreon clients include "right-wing women, people of color, and transgender people", but according to Adam Popescu of Bloomberg News, "most" of the donations go to "white supremacists". As of December 2017, the site reports it receives about $25,000 a month in donations, but the amount "have been doubling from month to month". Hatreon takes a 5% cut of donations.

To disguise its "identity from partner banks" Hatreon uses "layers of shell companies", and to keep from being expelled from web hosting it uses overseas hosts.

Political and economic views

Wilson claims an array of influences from anti-state and libertarian political thinkers, including leftist market anarchists like the mutualist scholar Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, capitalist libertarians such as the Austrian School scholar Hans-Herman Hoppe, and classical liberals including Frederic Bastiat. Wilson is against intellectual property rights. He has also indicated that although his primary goal is the subversion of state-structures he also hopes that his contributions may help to dismantle the existing system of capitalist property relations.

On American gun politics

Asked during an interview with Popular Science if the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting had affected his thinking or plans in any way, Wilson responded:

"... understanding that rights and civil liberties are something that we protect is also understanding that they have consequences that are also protected, or tolerated. The exercise of civil liberties is antithetical to the idea of a completely totalizing state. That's just the way it is."

On subversion and resistance

During a January 2013 interview with Glenn Beck on the nature of and motivations behind his effort to develop and share gun 3D printable files Wilson offered:

"That's a real political act, giving you a magazine, telling you that it will never be taken away. ... That's real politics. That's radical equality. That's what I believe in. ... I'm just resisting. What am I resisting? I don't know, the collectivization of manufacture? The institutionalization of the human psyche? I'm not sure. But I can tell you one thing: this is a symbol of irreversibility. They can never eradicate the gun from the earth."

Journalist Brian Doherty of Reason described Wilson as "more than just a gun guy", adding that Wilson may be "right about how it has to end: the people will have the power."

Work

Bibliography

• Come and Take It: The Gun Printer's Guide to Thinking Free (2016) Simon & Schuster

Filmography

As himself

• After Newtown: Guns in America (2013)
• Print the Legend (2014)
• Deep Web (2015)
• No Control (2015)
• The New Radical (2017)

See also

• 3D printed firearms
• Anarchism in the United States
• Libertarian perspectives on revolution

External links

• "Click. Print. Gun." Motherboard (VICE Media.) (March 25, 2013) (Video broadcast)
• "Cody Wilson" TheBlaze.com (January 17, 2013) (Video broadcast)
• "Cody Wilson: troll, genius, patriot, provocateur, anarchist, attention whore, gun nut or Second Amendment champion?" Arkansas Times (January 9, 2014)
• "Free Guns For Everyone! The Printable Gun with Cody Wilson." Anarchy Gumbo Podcast (One-hour audio interview, Cody's first interview, done before the printable gun existed) (August 9, 2012)