Crime & Justice 5 min read 5h ago · Updated August 24, 2026 at 23:03 UTC

3D-Printed Gun Creator Claims Tool to Beat Detection

Cody Wilson claims his 'Hochulization' tool defeats hash-based gun file detection by altering file identifiers without affecting the printed object's function, and says he is
New York has enacted the first US law mandating print-blocking software on new 3D printers, whilst California's similar AB 2047 is advancing to a Senate vote, though neither law
A Dartmouth engineering professor assessed that Hochulization would likely work technically against hash-matching systems, whilst Wilson separately claims AI-based detection

The creator of the world's first 3D-printed firearm claims to have developed a tool capable of defeating government-mandated software designed to prevent 3D printers from producing guns, opening what experts and advocates describe as an escalating technological conflict between regulators and those seeking workarounds.

The Hochulization claim

Cody Wilson, founder of Austin-based company Defense Distributed, says the tool — which he has named "Hochulization" in a pointed reference to New York Governor Kathy Hochul — works by automatically altering the unique hash identifier attached to a gun design file without changing the functional output of the printed object. A hash is a unique string generated by running a file through an algorithm; detection systems that rely on hash matching would compare a file's hash against a database of known gun files and block any match from printing. By adding a small series of bytes to each file, Wilson claims the hash changes whilst the printed item — whether a suppressor or a firearm frame — continues to function as intended. "Hochulization is a de minimis policy to change the hash of every file that gets created and downloaded to where there is never going to be a complete library of hashes," Wilson said.

Wilson says he intends to apply the treatment to all files hosted on DEFCAD — which he claims is the world's largest 3D gun file repository, holding more than 200,000 designs — and to make the tool open source, enabling any individual user to apply it independently. He claims the process has already begun. Governor Hochul's office did not respond to a request for comment on the development.

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The regulatory backdrop

New York enacted what is described as the country's first law mandating gun file detection software on new 3D printers, pushed through as part of the state's FY 2027 budget. A similar measure in California, AB 2047, introduced and co-authored by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, is advancing to the Senate floor for a vote. Under the California bill, new printers manufactured or sold in the state would be required to carry print-blocking software, with non-compliant models banned from sale or transfer from December 2029. A spokesperson for Bauer-Kahan declined to comment on Wilson's project.

Neither law specifies what the detection software must look like in practice; that question is being left to working groups drawn from manufacturing, artificial intelligence, and firearms regulation. Industry experts remain divided on whether file-blocking at scale is technically achievable. Governor Hochul has described the measure as necessary to close what she calls a black-market "plastic pipeline."

Technical debate and expert assessment

Solomon Diamond, an associate professor of engineering at Dartmouth College, said Hochulization would likely work on a technical level against a hash-based detection model, but cautioned that this does not necessarily render the hashing approach worthless as policy. Not every user, he suggested, would take the additional step of altering a file's hash, and the requirement to create an account and provide an email address on DEFCAD itself represents a further barrier to entry for less determined individuals.

Wilson claims his team went further, testing whether more sophisticated, AI-driven detection — of the type being developed by companies including Spain-based Print&Go, which is reportedly working with legislators in both New York and California — could also be circumvented. Using techniques such as re-saving a gun part as a slightly different mesh or appending what he described as "a small extra lump of unused geometry," Wilson claims his team was able to defeat their own internally built AI detection model. He additionally claims their system, trained on data including non-public files from DEFCAD, produced a 30 per cent false positive rate — a figure he argues illustrates the inherent limitations of prediction-based approaches. These claims have not been independently verified.

Growing threat, contested response

The dispute unfolds against a backdrop of rising 3D-printed gun seizures. The New York Police Department recovered one such weapon in 2021; by 2024 that figure had reached 109. Gun policy organisation Everytown documented comparable increases across 20 other cities, though 3D-printed firearms remain a small proportion of total gun seizures nationally. The technology has also grown considerably more capable since Wilson printed the single-shot "Liberator" in 2013. Designs such as the FGC-9, capable of firing multiple high-velocity rounds, have reportedly been recovered in the hands of neo-Nazi cells in Europe and armed groups fighting Myanmar's military junta. Accessories produced via 3D printing — particularly switches that convert semi-automatic weapons to fire automatically, and suppressors — are considered by some analysts to pose an even more acute risk, given that they are typically illegal or heavily licensed. Luigi Mangione, who has admitted to shooting and killing UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson and is awaiting sentencing, allegedly used a partially 3D-printed pistol frame and a 3D-printed suppressor.

Opposition to mandatory file-scanning technology is not confined to firearms advocates. Makers, hobbyists, digital rights groups, and parts of the entertainment industry have raised separate concerns that imposing surveillance-style scanning on printers could misidentify innocent objects as weapons, restrict creative freedom more broadly, and potentially be expanded by corporations to enforce intellectual property protections. Wilson, who describes himself as a crypto-anarchist and an aggressive Second Amendment advocate, has previously argued that gun design files constitute constitutionally protected speech under the First Amendment — a claim that remains the subject of unresolved litigation following his earlier legal battle with the State Department over export-control rules. His background is not without controversy: he founded the platform Hatreon as an alternative to Patreon, which attracted extremists, white supremacists, and neo-Nazis before it was shut down in 2018.

Wilson has said his aim with Hochulization is partly strategic — to demonstrate to working groups and policymakers how easily a purely hash-based system can be defeated, thereby forcing a choice between adopting more aggressive, AI-driven scanning or abandoning the legislative approach entirely. The tension between AI-based detection and adversarial evasion techniques has parallels in broader cybersecurity debates, where automated systems designed to identify threats are routinely challenged by those seeking to circumvent them. How regulators, technology firms, and courts respond to Wilson's latest move is likely to shape the trajectory of 3D-printed gun legislation well beyond New York.

##GhostGuns ##3DPrinting ##GunControl

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