The notion that Cody Wilson actually created something uniquely dangerous is frankly absurd. Any lone nut in a town with a hardware store can make a much more

The notion that Cody Wilson actually created something uniquely dangerous is frankly absurd. Any lone nut in a town with a hardware store can make a much more effective and reliable firearm. That's not just some nonsense about what a trained person with a machine shop can hypothetically do... you can look up videos on youtube of tons of people making reliable shotguns with a 2x4", a metal pipe, and a few plumbing fixtures. Fuck-all training or expertise required, a child could do it. A computer illiterate child could do it, which is more than can be said of printed guns. What Cody Wilson actually did (and what he set out to do) is get people talking. He did that exceptionally well. For some reason a printed gun drives home the "anybody can make a gun" message much more effectively than a 20 minute trip to the hardware store. His major accomplishment is recognizing that (well, getting the thing to work was impressive, but I think that is very secondary).