New York governor to 3D-printed gun leader: ‘tell Cody I will get ahead of him’
Kathy Hochul defended her state’s ban on 3D-printed guns, saying, ‘I’m going to be the one who says no.‘
Kathy Hochul defended her state’s ban on 3D-printed guns, saying, ‘I’m going to be the one who says no.‘
by Aug 31, 2026, 2:20 PM UTC
Image: New York Daily News / Getty Images
Stevie Bonifield is a news writer covering all things consumer tech. Stevie started out at Laptop Mag writing news and reviews on hardware, gaming, and AI.
Cody Wilson, the creator of the first 3D-printed gun, announced a tool last week aimed at skirting a New York law that prevents 3D printers from making firearms — and taunting governor Kathy Hochul in the process. But Hochul isn’t having it.
In this week’s episode of Decoder, Hochul responded to Wilson’s “Hochulization” tool, warning she isn’t going to let it defeat the state’s efforts:
You can tell Cody I will get ahead of him next. I can’t always be on the forefront when I see someone intentionally thwarting a law. It is the law that you cannot have 3D-printed guns in the state of New York. And if you think it’s okay to have someone in their kitchen who may have severe mental health problems who wants to shoot up kids in your school, make a ghost gun at their kitchen table or create a munitions factory where there was none, with no regulations, no background checks, no nothing, and people broadcast that as if it’s a proper thing to do is challenge me on that, then I say go for it. Because you’re trampling in the wrong space.
Wilson said last week that he plans to apply the “Hochulization” technique to his company’s repository of over 200,000 files of gun designs and components, and even intends to open-source it. The tool is designed to get around government-mandated gun file detection systems by changing the hashes on the files so they aren’t flagged as guns, without changing the functionality of the end product.
Wilson isn’t the only person who’s pushed back on calls for gun detection software — the Electronic Frontier Foundation has also voiced concerns about digital surveillance and mandating “censorware” on 3D printers. And earlier this year, a creator in Kentucky highlighted the potential gray areas of 3D printed gun bans with an e-reader case that looks like a gun, but isn’t functional.
When asked how regulations will handle 3D-printer designs like the e-reader case that look like guns but aren’t, Hochul said, “I want to make sure that we’re getting the objective I’m looking for and I’ll figure it out.” She went on to admit that “there are other restrictions that occur,” but stood by New York’s ban:
It’s not ideal, but I also didn’t think it was a smart idea for people to manufacture weapons of mass destruction at their kitchen table and kill kids. So I’m going to be the one who says no. I’d rather have the regulation that protects and prevents it. Use 3D printers for any kind of good. You can make all kinds of things with 3D printers. It’s not a ban on 3D printing. It is a use that is illegal because you cannot have a gun in the state of New York without having had a background check, having regulation, having it registered. We have all kinds of rules, which is one of the reasons why we are one of the safest states in America. Lowest gun homicide deaths in America. It’s extraordinary, because the rules are working. So not everyone loves rules. I get it. This is not the wild west. This is New York. We’re going to do it right.
The Verge’s Nilay Patel pointed out that the backlash to New York’s ban shares a common theme with the bipartisan backlash to Flock cameras: Both issues highlight growing concerns around digital surveillance. Hochul acknowledged the “anxiety” around surveillance. She argued that the government has to be watching for “excesses,” and responded to worries about the misuse of Flock cameras, saying, “To the extent that they’re being abused, that has to stop.”
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