You're listening to the inquiry on the BBC World Service with me Linda you.

Each week one question, four expert witnesses and an answer. It's early May 2013 and a surprising video is doing the rounds online.

It shows a plastic object fixed on top of a tripod in the middle of a dusty field.

The object has a trigger and attached to it is a long piece of yellow string.

A countdown starts.

Someone from behind the camera pulls the string

letting off a small explosion.

It was the world's first ever 3D printed handgun

being successfully fired.

The man in the video was Cody Wilson.

Using an $8,000 $3D printer, he had created a crude single shot pistol made of plastic, which he called the Liberator.

He then posted the blueprint online. It was downloaded nearly a hundred thousand times and

reposted elsewhere.

Since then, Cody Wilson has been battling the U.S. government over his right to make the

Blue Prince public online. We'll hear more about his story later.

But as US states move to block the circulation of the code for a gun you can print at home.

Is the cat already out of the bag?

Does the 3D printing revolution mean that people anywhere

can print anything they want as long as they get their hands on the right design?

So, our question this week,

can we control 3D printing? Part 1, Endless Opportunity.

Endless Opportunity. Ah, that's a bit of an embarrassing one because it would have to be a keychain I printed for a comic book person I would have an affinity with.

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