Wilson is believed to be in Taiwan after a friend of the alleged victim told him about the investigation.<\/b>
\nLast month, libertarian activist Cody Wilson drew global media attention over his plans to publish blueprints for a gun that could be fully made using a 3D printer. Now, Wilson is in the news for a whole different reason: He\u2019s been accused of sexually assaulting a minor.
It also seems he may have fled to Taiwan, where he could be out of reach of police.
Police in Austin, Texas, told the Austin American-Statesman that Wilson, who\u2019s 30, has been charged with sexual assault; he\u2019s accused of having sex with a 16-year-old girl on August 15 and paying her $500.
The girl apparently met Wilson on the website SugarDaddyMeet.com, where he went by the name \u201cSanjuro,\u201d according to the police affidavit seen by the Statesman. The two continued talking through text messages before eventually agreeing to meet at a local coffee shop. They then went to a hotel, where the girl said she had sex with Wilson. After, she said, Wilson paid her $500.
The girl gave police specific details about where she met Wilson, which authorities reportedly corroborated with surveillance footage and hotel records.
Police now believe that Wilson was tipped off by a friend of the 16-year-old that police were investigating him. They say he\u2019s currently in Taiwan, where he frequently travels for business, and appears to have missed a scheduled flight back.
As Los Angeles Times reporter Matt Pearce pointed out, Taiwan doesn\u2019t have an extradition treaty with the US \u2014 meaning it might not have to fulfill authorities\u2019 request to send Wilson back to America for prosecution.
It remains unclear what, if any, effect the latest charges against Wilson will have on his 3D-printed gun plans and other projects. (He\u2019s also known for other endeavors, including creating Hatreon, a now-defunct crowdfunding website that was beloved by the white nationalist alt-right and neo-Nazis.)
But the sexual assault charges aren\u2019t the first time he\u2019s run into legal troubles.
For years, Wilson has been in court battles with different levels of government to try to publish blueprints for what\u2019s widely believed to be the world\u2019s first fully 3D-printed gun.
Since making a 3D-printed gun only requires a 3D printer, the right materials, and a blueprint, the concern is that 3D-printed guns will make it easy to bypass a host of state and federal laws.
Printing a gun doesn\u2019t require a background check or any documentation, offering a workaround for people who are legally prohibited from buying a gun for reasons such as a criminal record or a history of mental illness.
A 3D-printed gun can also be made without a serial number or anything that would make these firearms easily traceable if they\u2019re used in a crime.
Despite court orders blocking him from publishing the blueprints, Wilson announced plans last month to directly distribute the blueprints to people anyway \u2014 taking advantage of a loophole in the order that said the blueprints \u201ccan be emailed, mailed, securely transmitted, or otherwise published within the United States.\u201d
Prior to that, Wilson planned to publish the blueprints online on August 1, after the federal government, under President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, abruptly backed down from a legal fight that had until then prevented Wilson from publishing the blueprints. But Wilson\u2019s original plans were put on hold after state officials sued in federal court.
The previous administration, under President Barack Obama, had forced Wilson to stop publishing the blueprints on his website, Defcad.com. Wilson sued the administration in hopes of republishing his schematics. The case seemed like a win for the government, with multiple courts initially ruling in the government\u2019s favor.
But once the Trump administration came in with its gun-friendly politics, the Justice Department suddenly agreed to a settlement \u2014 giving Wilson and his nonprofit, Defense Distributed, \u201cessentially everything they wanted,\u201d Andy Greenberg reported in Wired. The deal allowed Wilson to publish his blueprints starting in August and paid him $40,000 for his legal costs.
Still, it\u2019s a big question whether any of these attempts to stop Wilson will amount to much. The technology is out there, and the information is inevitably going to end up on the internet at some point. Even before Wilson\u2019s latest move (to directly distribute blueprints), there were websites hosting 3D printer designs for guns, and sites dedicated to hosting Wilson\u2019s files, even as Wilson\u2019s own ability to republish the documents was held up in court.
For more about the battle to stop 3D-printed guns, read Vox\u2019s explainer .<\/p>\n

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