Calls for banning 3D-printed guns leads to huge interest in 3D-printed gun sites

What happens when the government indicates that it wants to ban something? The same thing that happens when parents tell their children not to put their hand in the cookie jar. Thus, because there have been calls to ban the 3D printing of any sort of firearm or anything that could be used in the making of a firearm, guess who the beneficiary is.

DEFCAD, a website that is focused entirely on 3D-printed guns, is now raking in about 3,000 visitors every hour. The site, operated by gun activist group Defense Distributed, has generated more than 2TB worth of traffic since it launched — not bad for what is actually a super-niche site.

Of course, it has garnered significantly more attention than it ever would have if top officials hadn’t turned it into a major controversial talking point, especially after the school massacre in Connecticut.

Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson was quoted saying that he receives a lot of emails from people, both in the US and abroad, in support of what the website stands for. It has become sort of a symbol of the Second Amendment. However, its purpose is obviously more than symbolism. According to Wilson, more than 250,000 files have been downloaded from the site, ranging from grenade models to bullet casings and everything in between.

Most of the headlines about this niche are not so pretty, though. There is a bill in the works to ban 3D-printed gun magazines, and mainstream 3D printing companies have had to cave to social pressure — MakerBot removed all gun parts from its repertoire and Stratasys publicly seized one man’s 3D printer because he was trying to make guns.