Cody Wilson

Career

Defense Distributed

Main article: Defense Distributed

In 2012, Wilson and associates at Defense Distributed began the Wiki Weapon Project to raise funds for designing and releasing the files for a 3D printable gun. At the time Wilson was the project's only spokesperson; he called himself "co-founder" and "director."

Learning of Defense Distributed'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 canceled its lease with Wilson and sent a team to confiscate the printer.

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

In May 2013, Wilson successfully test-fired a pistol called "the Liberator" which reportedly was made using a Stratasys Dimension series 3D printer purchased on eBay. After test firing, he released the blueprints of the gun's design online through a Defense Distributed website. The State Department Office of Defense Trade Controls Compliance demanded that he remove the files, threatening prosecution for violations of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). In October 2014, Defense Distributed began selling to the public a miniature CNC (computer numerical control) mill named Ghost Gunner to finish "80 percent" receivers, like those used to build the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle.

In November 2014 Wilson was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, a pick the publication regretted nine years later putting Wilson in its Hall of Shame. On May 6, 2015, Defense Distributed and the Second Amendment Foundation filed Defense Distributed v. U.S. Dept. of State, a constitutional challenge of the ITAR regime used to control speech. On July 10, 2018, the State Department offered to settle the lawsuit and Wilson continued to work at DEFCAD. Wilson briefly resigned from the company in 2018 after being indicted for sexual assault. In September 2019, after accepting a plea deal and probation, he rejoined the company.

Dark Wallet

In 2013, Wilson, along with Amir Taaki, began work on a Bitcoin cryptocurrency wallet called Dark Wallet, a project planned to anonymize financial transactions. He appeared at the SXSW festival in Austin in 2014 to discuss Dark Wallet.

Bitcoin Foundation

On U.S. election day, November 4, 2014, Wilson announced 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." He said, "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.us, an "alt-right version of Patreon" providing crowdfunding and payment services for groups and individuals banned from platforms including Kickstarter, Patreon, PayPal, and Stripe. The site attracted notable alt-right and neo-Nazi figures such as Andrew Anglin and Richard B. Spencer. Wilson said that Hatreon clients included "right-wing women, people of color, and transgender people"; Bloomberg News reported that most donations went to white supremacists. According to Hannah Shearer, staff attorney at the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, Hatreon users incited violence contrary to Hatreon's terms of service, which forbid illegal activity.

Hatreon.us claimed to have received about $25,000 a month in donations (). The site took a five percent cut of donations. Several months after Hatreon's launch, Visa, the site's payments processor, suspended its financial services. With no means of processing payments, the site became inactive.

Coast Runner Industries

Wilson founded Coast Runner Industries in February 2023. The "Coast Runner" is a CNC milling machine capable of making a wide variety of CNC milled items. Coast Runner Industries was founded in February 2023 by Cody Wilson, Garret Walliman and others, and debuted its first product, the CR-1, on Kickstarter in February 2024.

In May 2024, San Diego County, joined by The Giffords Law Center, brought suit against Coast Runner in California state court for violating a state law "blocking gun-making milling machines."

Political and economic views

Wilson claims an array of influences from anti-state and libertarian political thinkers including mutualist theorist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, paleolibertarian anarcho-capitalists like Austrian School economist Hans-Hermann Hoppe, and classical liberals such as Frederic Bastiat. His political thought has been compared to the "conservative revolutionary" ideas of Ernst Jünger. Jacob Siegel wrote that "Cody Wilson arrives at a place where left, right—and democracy—disappear" and that he oscillates "somewhere between anarch and anarchist".

Wilson is an avowed crypto-anarchist, and has discussed his work in relation to the cypherpunks and Timothy May's vision. He did not vote in the 2016 United States presidential election. He frequently cites the work of post-Marxist thinkers in public comments, especially that of Jean Baudrillard, whom he has claimed as his "master". Asked during an interview with Popular Science if the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting 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.[[File:CodyWilson-2014-NHLF14.png|thumb|Cody Wilson discussing 3D printed guns at Liberty Forum in [[Nashua, New Hampshire]] in February 2014]]

Wilson is generally opposed to intellectual property rights. He indicated his primary goal is the subversion of state structures and he hopes that his contributions may help to dismantle the existing system of capitalist property relations.

In a January 2013 interview with Glenn Beck about the nature of and motivations behind his effort to develop and share gun 3D printable files Wilson said:(It'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.

Awards

Wireds "Danger Room" named Wilson one of "The 15 Most Dangerous People in the World" in 2012. In 2015 and 2017, Wired said that he was one of the five most dangerous people on the Internet; in 2019 it named him one of the most dangerous people on the internet for the decade.

Personal life

Originally from Little Rock, Arkansas, Wilson was student body president at Cabot High School in Cabot, Arkansas and graduated in 2006. He received a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Central Arkansas (UCA) in 2010, where he had a scholarship. While at UCA, Wilson was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and was the president of UCA's student government association. He traveled to China with UCA's study-abroad program.

In 2012, he studied at the University of Texas School of Law but left the university in May 2013 after two years.

In August 2018, Wilson was accused of paying a 16-year-old girl $500 for sex in a hotel room in Austin, Texas. When police issued a warrant for his arrest on September 19, 2018, Wilson was in Taipei, Taiwan. He was arrested by Taiwanese authorities after the U.S. cancelled his passport and therefore, he no longer held a valid visa. Taiwan's National Immigration Agency subsequently deported him to the United States. After his return on September 23, 2018, he was released on $150,000 bond () from Harris County Jail in Houston.

On December 28, 2018, Wilson was indicted by the State of Texas for sexual assault, a second-degree felony. Wilson's defense attorney, F. Andino Reynal, stated that Wilson believed the girl to be a consenting adult, and that SugarDaddyMeet.com, the website where they met, required users to declare they are at least 18 years of age before they could create an account.

On August 9, 2019, Wilson pleaded guilty to injury of a child, a third-degree felony, in exchange for a deferred adjudication and a seven-year term of probation. The plea deal kept Wilson from receiving a criminal conviction but required him to temporarily register as a sex offender for the duration of his probation. He was additionally sentenced to 475 hours of community service and a $1,200 fine ().

In 2023, Vice reported that Wilson completed his probation in November 2022, after which the charges and case were dismissed as provided for under the terms of his plea agreement.

Works

Bibliography

• Come and Take It: The Gun Printer's Guide to Thinking Free. New York: Gallery Books (2016). .

Filmography

;As himself

• After Newtown: Guns in America (2013)
• Print the Legend (2014)
• Deep Web (2015)
• No Control (2015)
• The New Radical (2017)
• Death Athletic: A Dissident Architecture (2023) ;As producer
• TFW NO GF (2020) A documentary by Alex Lee Moyer.

References

References

1. Kopfstein, Janus. (April 12, 2013). "What happens when 3D printing and crypto-anarchy collide?". [[The Verge]].
2. Pangburn, DJ. (September 13, 2013). "Whistleblowers and the Crypto-Anarchist Underground: An Interview with Andy Greenberg". Motherboard.tv.
3. Doherty, Brian. (December 12, 2012). "What 3-D Printing Means for Gun Rights". [[Reason (magazine).
4. Brown, Rich. (2012-09-06). "You don't bring a 3D printer to a gun fight -- yet".
5. Morelle, Rebecca. (2013-05-06). "Working gun made with 3D printer".
6. Greenberg, Andy. (August 23, 2012). "'Wiki Weapon Project' Aims To Create A Gun Anyone Can 3D-Print At Home". [[Forbes]].
7. Hotz, Alexander. (November 25, 2012). "3D 'Wiki Weapon' guns could go into testing by end of year, maker claims". [[The Guardian]].
8. Beckhusen, Robert. (October 1, 2012). "3-D Printer Company Seizes Machine From Desktop Gunsmith". [[Wired News]].
9. Coldewey, Devin. (October 2, 2012). "3-D printed gun project derailed by legal woes". NBC News.
10. Farivar, Cyrus. (March 17, 2013). "3D-printed gun maker now has federal firearms license to manufacture, deal guns". [[Ars Technica]].
11. Brown, Steven Rex. (May 13, 2013). "Man who used 3-D printer to create gun hopes efforts can 'destroy the spirit of gun control itself'". [[Daily News (New York).
12. Greenberg, Andy. (May 9, 2013). "State Department Demands Takedown Of 3D-Printable Gun Files For Possible Export Control Violations". Forbes.
13. Greenberg, Andy. (October 1, 2015). "The $1,200 Machine That Lets Anyone Make a Metal Gun at Home". [[Wired (magazine).
14. Greenberg, Andy. (June 3, 2015). "I Made an Untraceable AR-15 'Ghost Gun' in My Office – And It Was Easy". [[Wired (magazine).
15. Morales, Miguel. "30 Under 30: The Top Young Lawyers, Policymakers And Power Players".
16. Forbes Under 30 Team. "Hall Of Shame: The 10 Most Dubious People Ever To Make Our 30 Under 30 List".
17. Porter, Jon. (2023-11-29). "Forbes publishes 30 Under 30 “Hall of Shame.”".
18. Greenberg, Andy. (May 6, 2015). "3-D Printed Gun Lawsuit Starts the War Between Arms Control and Free Speech".
19. (July 10, 2018). "A Landmark Legal Shift Opens Pandora's Box for DIY Guns".
20. Mattise, Nathan. (2019-09-12). "Judge accepts Cody Wilson plea deal despite "sufficient evidence" of guilt".
21. (September 25, 2018). "Defense Distributed's new era – Cody Wilson resigns, former arts professional steps in". [[Ars Technica]].
22. Stephens, Alain. (November 20, 2019). "Despite His Criminal Record, Cody Wilson Is Back in the 3D-Printed Gun Business".
23. Greenberg, Andy. (October 31, 2013). "Dark Wallet Aims To Be The Anarchist's Bitcoin App Of Choice". [[Forbes]].
24. Feuer, Alan. (December 14, 2013). "The Bitcoin Ideology". [[The New York Times]].
25. (April 18, 2014). "Cody Wilson: Happiness is a 3-D Printed Gun". [[Reason (magazine)#Reason TV.
26. del Castillo, Michael. (November 4, 2014). "Exclusive: Cody Wilson to run for Bitcoin Foundation board, plans its destruction". [[American City Business Journals]].
27. Hicks, William. (2017-08-04). "Meet Hatreon, the new favorite website of the Alt-Right".
28. (August 4, 2017). "Meet Hatreon, The New Favorite Website of the Alt-Right".
29. (December 4, 2017). "This Crowdfunding Site Runs on Hate".
30. "Cody Rutledge Wilson". [[Southern Poverty Law Center]].
31. Michel, Casey. (March 13, 2018). "White supremacists' favorite fundraising site may be imploding".
32. Kraft, Caleb. (2024-02-27). "Review: Coast Runner Desktop CNC Mill - Make:".
33. Scarcella, Mike. (December 10, 2024). "Gun rights activist sues Kickstarter, Indiegogo over alleged funding boycott".
34. (2024-02-27). "Coast Runner Kickstarter Campaign Promises to Make Metal CNC as Easy as 3D Printing".
35. Rector, Kevin. (2024-05-03). "Ghost Gunner company accused of rebranding ploy to dodge California ban".
36. Steele, Chandra. (May 9, 2013). "Dismantle the State: Q&A With 3D Gun Printer Cody Wilson". [[PC Magazine]].
37. Rayner, Alex. (May 6, 2013). "3D-printable guns are just the start, says Cody Wilson". [[The Guardian]].
38. Ostroff, Joshua. (March 12, 2013). "'Wiki Weapons' Maker Cody Wilson Says 3D Printed Guns 'Are Going To Be Possible Forever'". [[Huffington Post]].
39. Fallenstein, Daniel. (December 27, 2012). "All markets become black". Blink.
40. Siegel, Jacob. (May 1, 2018). "Send Anarchists, Guns, and Money". [[The Baffler]].
41. Kopfstein, Janus. (April 12, 2013). "What happens when 3D printing and crypto-anarchy collide?". [[The Verge]].
42. Walker, Rob. "A Crypto-Anarchist Will Help You Build a DIY AR-15". Bloomberg.
43. Zaleski, Andrew. (March 11, 2015). "Cody Wilson Wants to Destroy Your World".
44. Moretti, Eddy. (April 9, 2013). "Cody Wilson on 3D Printed Guns".
45. Sackur, Stephen. (March 11, 2014). "Cody Wilson".
46. (March 12, 2014). "Barack Obama Is A Grocery Clerk! A Fraud And A Salesman Used To Sell You Something On TV". [[BBC]].
47. Wilson. (January 18, 2013). "Wiki Weapons Founder: 'They can never eradicate the gun from the Earth'".
48. McCoy, Luke. (May 20, 2013). "30 Influential Pro-Gun Rights Advocates". USACarry.com.
49. Wired Staff. (December 19, 2012). "The 15 Most Dangerous People in the World". [[Wired (magazine).
50. Wired Staff. (January 1, 2015). "The Most Dangerous People on the Internet Right Now". [[Wired (magazine).
51. Wired Staff. (December 28, 2017). "The Most Dangerous People on the Internet in 2017". [[Wired (magazine).
52. Wired Staff. (December 31, 2019). "The Most Dangerous People on the Internet This Decade".
53. Yadron, Danny. (January 1, 2014). "Cody Wilson Rattled Lawmakers With Plastic Gun, Now on to Bitcoin Transactions". WSJ.
54. "Document: Cody Wilson: troll, genius, patriot, provocateur, anarchist, attention whore, gun nut or Second Amendment champion?". Cqrcengage.com.
55. Dillow, Clay. (December 21, 2012). "Q+A: Cody Wilson Of The Wiki Weapon Project On The 3-D Printed Future of Firearms". [[Popular Science]].
56. Greenberg, Andy. "Waiting for Dark: Inside Two Anarchists' Quest for Untraceable Money".
57. Hsu, Tiffany. (2018-09-19). "3-D Printed Gun Promoter, Cody Wilson, Is Charged With Sexual Assault of Child". The New York Times.
58. Mattise, Nathan. (2018-09-21). "Taiwanese authorities arrest Cody Wilson, intend to deport him".
59. Blakinger, Keri. "3-D printed gun advocate Cody Wilson bonds out of jail in Houston after arrest in Taiwan". Chron.
60. Mattise, Nathan. (2019-01-03). "Texas indicts Cody Wilson on multiple counts of sexual assault of a minor".
61. Autullo, Ryan. "Cody Wilson pleads guilty in child sex case".
62. Mattise, Nathan. (2019-08-09). "Cody Wilson pleads guilty to lesser charge, will register as sex offender".
63. Horton, Alex. (2019-08-09). "He made headlines as an activist for 3-D printed guns. Now he's pleaded guilty in child sex case.". The Washington Post.
64. Taylor, Magdalene. (2023-09-21). "Are 3D-Printed Guns Really About Free Speech?".
65. Tyrer-Jones, Alex. (2025-02-19). "3D Printed Gunfight: Matthew Larosiere v. Cody Wilson in Copyright Battle".
66. Solce, Jessica. (2023-10-21). "Death Athletic: A Dissident Architecture". Encode Productions.
67. (May 4, 2020). "'TFW No GF' Is a Deeply Uncomfortable Portrayal of Incel Culture".
68. (September 24, 2013). "Dark Wallet: A Radical Way to Bitcoin".