Liberator (gun)
| Liberator | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Type | Pistol |
| Place of origin |
 United States
|
| Production history | |
| Designer | Defense Distributed |
| Designed | 2013 |
| Specifications | |
| Length | 8.5 in (216 mm) |
| Barrel length | 2.5 in (64 mm) |
| Height | 6.3 in (160 mm) |
|
|
|
| Cartridge | .380 ACP |
| Feed system | Single Shot |
The Liberator is a , 3D-printable single shot handgun, the first such printable firearm design made widely available online. The open source firm Defense Distributed designed the gun and released the plans on the Internet on May 6, 2013. The plans were downloaded over 100,000 times in the two days before the United States Department of State demanded that Defense Distributed retract the plans.
The plans for the gun remain hosted across the Internet and are available at file sharing websites like The Pirate Bay.
The pistol is named after the FP-45 Liberator, a single-shot pistol that George Hyde designed and that the Inland Manufacturing Division of the General Motors Corporation mass-produced for the United States Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in World War II. The OSS intended to air drop the gun into occupied Europe for resistance forces to use. A project of the OSS (which would later become the CIA), it is thought the Liberator was equally purposed as a tool of psychological warfare. Occupying forces in Europe would have to weigh evidence of distributed pistols as a factor in planning against civilian resistance, which would complicate their strategy and affect morale. However, though used in France, there is little proof that the pistols were ever dropped into occupied Europe in large quantities.
The physible Liberator's release to the Internet can be understood as Defense Distributed’s attempt to more successfully execute the historical psychological operation, and as a symbolic act supporting resistance to world governments.
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Wikipedia