International shipping company FedEx stands accused of refusing to ship a small business owner’s gun-related product, in what the entrepreneur claims is an underhanded attack on gun rights, individual liberty and the Second Amendment.
Dark Wallet innovator and 3D printed gun inventor Cody Wilson says FedEx’s refusal to ship his company’s latest product, the Ghost Gunner, has left him with no way to fulfill paying customers’ orders, effectively putting him out of business.
FedEx’s refusal is bizarre because the Ghost Gunner isn’t a gun. It’s a machine.
“It’s like a computer controlled mill, but it’s small, it’s affordable, it sits on your desktop,” described Wilson to Infowars. “And, notably, it can capably manufacture an AR-15 lower receiver from 80 percent manufacture.”
Wilson says FedEx’s move is purely political, and accuses the global courier of colluding with the federal government to take him out of business and ostensibly prevent the spread of firearms.
“My assertion here is that FedEx is trying to hide behind color of law,” Wilson argues. “Really they’re more interested in the political implications of my device than its legality. They don’t like the idea; they’re uncomfortable with the idea that people could have such easy access to guns, and will perform by extension what Eric Holder and the administration cannot do.”
After weeks of stalling, Wilson’s company, Defense Distributed, was ultimately denied service.
“Despite my submitting all the legal work I’d done, all the clear memorandum and stating how the law was obvious, that this was just a tool that people could use to make their guns, which is constitutionally protected activity – they said because people can use my machine to make firearms, they would not ship my machine, they would not offer me any rate at all, they do not want my business.”
The creator of the Wiki Weapon claims to also be a financial victim of Operation Choke Point, the US Justice Department-led effort to curtail the activities of certain businesses by “choking off” access to third party payment processors and other lenders.
“What we’re finding is a constellation, or a closed loop of businesses and government working together to agree by consensus that there’s only certain ways you’re gonna be able to get the gun,” Wilson says. “And they will not admit the possibility that you can constitutionally make these things for yourself without surveillance, or without commercial or ATF intervention.”
80 percent AR-15 lower receivers are legal and can easily be obtained, but require mills like Wilson’s for completion. Many gun owners prefer incomplete lowers because they don’t require registration or serialization, making them a target for the state.
Last year, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives exemplified this when they raided California gun parts manufacturer Ares Armor confiscating their merchandise over a unique lower receiver they sold, which the ATF alleged exceeded the 80 percent margin.
Wilson says he’s now unsure how his company will fulfill the orders.
“I have over a thousand orders for fulfillment right now, and I don’t know how i’m going to do that. If someone won’t cater to my business to fulfill my product, this is an easy way of de facto putting me out of business.”
While FedEx certainly has the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason, the fact that they specifically singled Wilson out because of a machine is absurd, hypocritical and alarming, especially given that they regularly ship firearms and have a business partnership with the National Rifle Association.
“This is a huge matter and I think [people] should know what these companies think of their Second Amendment.”
Infowars reached out to FedEx for comment but has not received a reply.
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