The United States' current gun control debate has centered on what type of guns people should legally own and what hoops people should jump through to procure them.
But what if people could ignore regulations altogether by producing guns in the comfort of their own homes? Thanks to the technological advances of 3D printing, that seemingly far-flung scenario may soon become reality.
A fascinating documentary produced by Motherboard tracks the evolution of the 3D printed gun movement, which was spearheaded by 25-year-old University of Texas law student Cody Wilson.
In the summer of 2012, Wilson formed Defense Distributed, an organization whose goal is to create a fully printable firearm. "Gun control for us is a fantasy," he says. "In a way that people say you're being unrealistic about printing a gun, I think it's more unrealistic, especially going forward, to think you could ever control this technology."
His site DEFCAD hosts downloadable designs for printable gun parts.
"I think the real utopia is the idea that we can go back to the 1990s and everything will be perfect forever," Wilson says in the video. "All we are saying is that, no you can't. Now there's the Internet."
Watch the video above to learn how close Wilson is to reaching his goal.