From Aurora to Sandy Hook, Americans have been absorbed with news headlines relating to guns, from violent shootings to the fiery debate over employing new controls and legislation. And now, the debate is getting even tenser with the evolution of the first 3-D printable gun, whose strongest advocates firmly believe everyone should have access to guns but is hitting legal snags.

Days before the deadly shooting rampage in Newtown, Connecticut, Texas-based company Defense Distributed released a YouTube (News - Alert) video demonstrating a partially 3-D printed AR-15 assault rifle known as “the Liberator.” According to Guns.com, the 3-D printed gun is built entirely from a durable, heat resistant plastic, and is composed of one small metal part – a single nail. The weapon is designed to fire standard handgun rounds, and is on the radar of lawmakers and in one of the highest reaches of the government -- the United States State Department.

The prototype’s designer and the founder of Texas-based not-for-profit Defense Distributed, Cody Wilson, posted the blueprints to his prototype online – downloadable for anyone and in just two days. 100,000 downloads later, the State Department ordered Wilson to take them down, citing international arms control law and indicated that the plans would be reviewed by the agency. The largest number of downloads reportedly were addresses in Spain, closely followed by the United States, Brazil, Germany and England. Wilson told Betabeat.com that he believes he is exempt to the State Department’s sanctions on him posting his blueprints as Defense Distributed is a non-profit which Wilson, a law student, says are protected under public domain.

“We got an official letter from the Secretary of State, telling me who they were, what their authority was under U.S. law and telling me they want to review these files to see if they’re class one munitions,” Wilson told Betabeat. “That includes blueprints.” Wilson complied with the State Department’s request and took down the files but he says the State Department’s mandate to remove the blueprints is larger than the gun debate and infringes on “freedom of the Web.”

Defense Distributed’s website says the non-profit is “organized to produce and publish” information relating the 3-D printing of firearms. The non-profits cites its humble beginnings with “little expertise and less financial backing.”  It seems clear Wilson wants to be a pioneer in 3-D printable guns, and believes the project might change the way people think about gun control and consumption.

“How do governments behave if they must one day operate on the assumption that any and every citizen has near instant access to a firearm through the Internet?” asks Defense Distributed on its website. “Let’s find out.”

What other legal hurdles does the production of a 3-D gun present as government officials on both the state and federal level revisit gun laws? New York congressman Steve Israel has called for national legislation against 3D guns and has re-introduced the Undectable Firearms Modernization Act that extends the ban on plastic firearms and includes homemade, plastic high-capacity magazines and receivers.

Rep. Israel said, “Security checkpoints, background checks, and gun regulations will do little good if criminals can print plastic firearms at home and bring those firearms through metal detectors with no one the wiser. When I started talking about the issue of plastic firearms months ago, I was told the idea of a plastic gun is science-fiction. Now that this technology appears to be upon us, we need to act now to extend the ban on plastic firearms.”