Founder Of 3D-Printed Gun Company Charged With Sexual Assault Of Child

TOPSHOT - Cody Wilson, owner of Defense Distributed company, holds a 3D printed gun, called the "Liberator", in his factory in Austin, Texas on August 1, 2018. - The US "crypto-anarchist" who caused panic this week b... TOPSHOT - Cody Wilson, owner of Defense Distributed company, holds a 3D printed gun, called the "Liberator", in his factory in Austin, Texas on August 1, 2018. - The US "crypto-anarchist" who caused panic this week by publishing online blueprints for 3D-printed firearms said Wednesday that whatever the outcome of a legal battle, he has already succeeded in his political goal of spreading the designs far and wide. A federal court judge blocked Texan Cody Wilson's website on Tuesday, July 31, 2018, by issuing a temporary injunction. (Photo by Kelly WEST / AFP) (Photo credit should read KELLY WEST/AFP/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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The Texas man who founded a company that develops and publishes blueprints to create 3-D printed guns was charged with child sexual assault Wednesday, according to the Austin Statesman.

An affidavit reviewed by the newspaper alleges that a girl under the age of 17 told her counselor at the Center for Child Protection that she had sex with a 30-year-old man, whom she identified as Cody Wilson, at a local hotel on Aug. 15. The man paid her $500, according to the report.

Wilson is not yet in custody, according to the Statesman. He did not immediately respond to TPM’s email requesting comment, and his cellphone inbox was full.

Texas considers sexual assault a second-degree felony punishable by between two to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.

Wilson allegedly met the girl on SugarDaddyMeet.com and began exchanging messages with her. He went by the username “Sanjuro,” per the affidavit reviewed by the Statesman. In the lead-up to their encounter, they shared nude photographs, and Wilson, via text, allegedly shared his name and told her he was a “big deal.”

The Austin resident is currently embroiled in a high-profile battle with the federal government over the legality of the open-sourced 3-D printed gun blueprints his company, Defense Distributed, has shared online. After the State Department in 2013 ordered Wilson to pull the plans from the internet, Wilson sued the Obama administration on First Amendment grounds. The Trump administration settled with Wilson earlier this year, allowing him to share the 3-D weapons plans online.

Various states have subsequently sued Wilson on national security and public safety grounds, and a Seattle federal judge has ordered him to halt the distribution of his plans.

Wilson also served as the founder of the now-defunct Hatreon, a far-right answer to Patreon, a platform that allows content creators to solicit paid subscriptions from supporters.

After last summer’s deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Wilson told TPM that he spent “12 grand a month” of his own money to fund the site, which he called a “passion project.” He said he was personally “not right-wing” but was “sympathetic” to the “alt-right” and didn’t believe they should be “banished from the internet.”

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Notable Replies

  1. So the NRA will obviously set up a GoFundMe account to help out the poor chap with his legal bills?

  2. I’m sure the court will be happy to set up a hearing with the accused and the minor in question for, say, Friday at 10 a.m. And if she doesn’t show, they’ll set him free.

  3. Turds of a feather…

  4. Oh holy fuck I’m shocked, SHOCKED!!

    :expressionless:

  5. I was thinking the NRA and their major money contributors, gun manufacturers, didn’t like people being able to make their own guns. Sure they probably make more money off ammo, but still want to also make even more beyond that off guns.

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