this is "nightline." >> tonight, firearm free-for-all? he's been called one of the most dangerous people on the internet. a second amendment and techno zealot now fighting for the right to publish 3d printing designs for untraceable, off the grid, so-called ghost guns. >> i've demonstrated the idea of gun control in the internet age is inoperable. >> selling a whole milling machine the size of a microwave to make heavy metal weapons. how his court battle could affect american gun control. plus the kid in the kitchen. a celebrity chef since he was 13 years old, now 19, opening his own new york city restaurant. the entire ambiance and menu brought to life from his mind. >> just sort of always felt natural. >> is this young man up to a top

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good evening. thank you for joining us. tonight we take you to the front lines of the battle that could change the future of gun control. a first amendment warrior is fighting for the right to publish blueprints for 3d printed homemade weapons that are unregulated and untraceable. guns that could end up in the wrong hands. here's abc's linsey davis. >> reporter: untraceable. largely unregulated. no background check needed. this ar-15 was not made by a gun manufacturer. the government doesn't even know it exists. >> i know that there's a culture war on for this. >> reporter: at the center of that culture war is cody wilson who's been called one of the most dangerous people on the internet. do you like the image that many people have of you, that you're this dangerous guy?

>> i don't dislike it, but it's more like amused by it, it's entertaining to me. >> reporter: for years wilson has been fighting to make his gun blueprints available online. so that anyone can make one at home. simply using a 3d printer. >> the idea of gun control in the internet age is inoperable. >> reporter: wilson's ambitions have terrified gun control advocates. >> it's the ultimate gun loophole. >> if you allow these plastic guns to be manufactured -- >> reporter: and embroiled him in an ongoing legal battle with the federal government and nearly two dozen states. last month the trump administration cleared the way for him to publish the blueprints. >> this morning the plans for ghost guns are up online. >> anyone will be able to legally download instructions to 3d print their own fully functional plastic gun. >> reporter: but just last week, again a judge stopped him, at least temporarily. the next hearing is just weeks

away. >> if cody wilson is not stopped, then what we will find is a universe where the internet has plans to 3d print any kind of weapon anybody wants, with printers that make that incredibme hnlours in their garage or living room. >> reporter: we traveled to austin, texas, to meet the man behind the controversy at the headquarters of his company, defense distributed. >> machine shop overflow. a lot of tools to hold components that we're making right now in process, you know. a lot of raw materials that we've cut from stock. >> reporter: wilson, who is just 30 years old, originally wanted to be a lawyer. why did you drop out of law school? >> i had a better idea. could you make wikileaks for guns? >> this is kind of where it all began? >> in a sense. >> reporter: back in 2012, he and friends were some of the first to 3d print a plastic gun which they called the liberator. >> anywhere there's a computer, there's a weapon. >> reporter: they shared the blueprint file on the internet.

wilson says it was downloaded more than 100,000 times in the first week. >> we will have the reality of a weapons system that can be printed out from your desk. >> reporter: that's when the government jumped in claiming his blueprints online violate rules about exporting weapons abroad. wilson responded with a lawsuit. is there at all a similar feeling between when you're shooting a gun and uploading the blueprint for how to make one? >> posting guns to the internet, my goodness. in these terms, knowing attorneys general will sue, nothing beats it. >> that's where the rush is for you? >> nothing beats it. >> first amendment issue? or second amendment? >> it's both. the way this had to be fought for years in court was on a first amendment claim. >> if a gun is a piece of data, then are you allowed to share it and call that free speech? that is the argument that defense distributed has been making for the last three years. >> reporter: "wired" writer andy greenberg has been covering wilson and the do it yourself

gun debate since 2013. >> all the headlines are about 3d precipitated guns. for defense distributed, 3d printing is a stand-in for any digital tool that allows you to with a download and a click create a gun component at home. >> this is your 3d printer here? ait's kind of a relic. >> this is what you made the liberator on? >> that's why i keep it around, i'm sentimental. >> reporter: wilson and company have moved beyond printing and plastic, now using metal. >> this is an ar-15 receiver being milled on the ghost gunner. >> reporter: wilson developed this computer automated milling someo machine, small enough to fit on a desk, all legal. >> this will take two hours and doesn't require constant intersession. you're watching this happen, somewhat mesmerizing. >> reporter: unlike plastic guns which sometimes malfunction, these metal versus could be comparable to what you buy at a gun store. as part of his research greenberg used wilson's machine

to make an ar-15 in the offices the "wired." >> they have a metal result but they're automated and require almost no skill, which i had none of. this milling machine is actually the most practical technology right now for homemade guns to circumvent all gun control laws and present a much more practical threat than 3d printing. >> reporter: homemade guns. sometimes called ghost guns. they're nothing new, and in many cases, perfectly legal. but critics say wilson's machine could make it areas for ghost guns to fall into the hands of people who aren't legally allowed to own firearms, like felons or the mentally ill. >> they are untraceable. we don't have any registry of who bought them, how off then they've been sold, how often they've been used in crimes. we've seen ghost gun shootings in the last years. >> starting story out of california -- >> first details about the gunman -- >> shooting at cars as they drove down the street -- >> i turned on the news.

i saw my father's car. i knew. i just knew. >> reporter: laticia franco still remembers that day five years ago when a man opened fire with a ghost gun in santa monica, killing five people, including her father and sister. >> i lost a lot of hope that day. my faith was tested. i felt like i didn't want to go on anymore. like, what was the point at that time? >> reporter: investigation revealed the shooter had a history of mental health issues and previously had tried to buy a gun but was denies. instead, he ordered the gun parts online and assembled them himself. >> we need to stop this so other families don't have to go through what my family went through. >> reporter: this incident was not at all connected to cody wilson. but franco says she's afraid of what he's doing. >> if i was speaking to cody wilson today, i would tell him, preve providing this information is wrong. he's also ethically responsible

for what other people do with this information. you provided these people with information that could potentially cause another tragedy. >> reporter: wilson says he is aware of the potential dangers of making access to ghost guns easier. how does that play when you realize there are real-life consequences to putting these so-called ghost guns in the hand of people that don't have the best intentions? >> this isn't just like playing games on your keyboard, right, on the internet. i've had customers arrested, right? in other states, for owning guns when they shouldn't have, you know? but again, like my avocation is that these are the necessary consequences of ensuring the people's right to keep and bear arms. i reserve the right to change my mind, right? maybe somehow it would deeply affect me and i would choose to discontinue the operation. >> really? is that a possibility? >> i'm a full human being. >> reporter: for now, wilson is stuck waiting to find out if the courts will allow him to upload those gun blueprints. but his files are actually

already out there. >> i found these in like a minute. >> reporter: shared by other websites. >> the government has essentially failed, even though they've tried to legal approach, they have failed to censor this information. it's getting out there. >> reporter: in the meantime, cody wilson continues shipping out those milling machines. so these are all ready to go? and says the controversy is good for business. >> for the most part, these will go to homes somewhere in the united states. >> reporter: despite all the legal battles ahead, wilson says he refuses to back down. >> a gun is power. this is the essence of this project. i'm actually giving people the means to create power for themselves. i'm zealous to do that, that's real for me. >> power, but the flip side is innocent lives are lost. >> power is power and people can misuse it. it's power all the same. a conversation beyond good and evil. >> reporter: for "nightline" i'm linsey davis in austin, texas. next, how this 19-year-old went from serving strangers in

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to most 19-year-olds, cooking means ramen noodles and pizza pockets. tonight meet a young man preparing lamb loin, eggplant carnitas, tortellini, every week in one of new york city's most competitive scenes.

>> for me it's hard to go a day in the city without planning my life around food. ♪ i'm talking bodegas, food carts, fresh marks, fine dining. every block in every borough is packed with its own flavor. a restaurant surviving the frenetic food scene of the big apple is no easy task. some of the greatest culinary minds have been kicked to the curb. and these days there's a new chef in town looking to be king. literally. enter chef lynn mcgary. >> a mackerel dish -- >> reporter: at just 19, lynn has the keys to his own kitchen at gem in downtown manhattan. >> this is the stew. this was on the menu last night. we're going to give it a try. >> this is delicious, man. >> go for it. >> yeah. >> reporter: the kid from malibu started chasing his dream early. >> this is all i ever wanted to do. there was never a moment where i was like, do i do this, do i do something else?

it always felt natural. >> reporter: at only 10 years old, before most kids are allowed to use an oven unsupervised, mcgary began teaching himself to cook through some of the world's most complex cookbooks. take me into the mind of a 10-year-old. the average 10-year-old, into sports, video games. why was 10-year-old flynn so enthralled by cooking or the culinary arts? >> the weird thing is i didn't start cooking by creating dishes. i was really inspired by like three michigan star high-level cooking. at the time i didn't know any of those techniques. the first two years of learning to cook i only learned how to make chicken stock. >> reporter: those lessons turned to dinner parties for friends and family. soon enough word got around town. by 13 mcgary was serving full tasting menus to paying customers. right at his mom's dining room table. >> i went to start working at restaurants in l.a. i was learning all this stuff and absorbing like a sponge but i wanted a place where i could explore my own way of thinking

of things. on my days off i would want an experiment. part of that was wanting people to come eat the food too. >> reporter: and they did. at 15, he's landed the cover of the "new york times magazine." by 16, 14-course popup in the big city. before most kids could drive, mcgary was a full-blown celebrity chef. with that came industry critics saying he hadn't paid enough dues to have earned his stripes. >> i've never, ever done anything to satisfy anyone else, truly, in my career, other than myself. if i'm happy with what i'm doing, i'm happy. i have to live with all my decisions, they don't. for restaurants where no one is enjoying it? you can have fun while you're doing it. >> reporter: everything's flynn's done, measured and premeditated, has led him to this point. his restaurant, gem, only six months old. just received its first review from "the new york times." calling mcgary more polished as

a chef than a restaurateur. that his cooking was nuanced, his plating was lyrical. >> i wanted to have my hand in every single part of this. in the design, in finding the space in doing the deal for the space, in every little part of it. >> reporter: hands-on, literally every aspect of the restaurant. >> i want all the ones that smell good. >> reporter: chef starts his mornings here, 9:00 a.m. sharp at the farmers' market in union square. >> it's like the grocery store. this is where i come five times a week to buy all the ingredients for the restaurant and to figure out what we're going to be cooking for the day. two bunches of this. two more, thanks. everything we're cooking is from the market. >> are you at the restaurant every day? >> yeah. >> yeah.? >> reporter: from the furnishing to the table settings, the restaurant is an homage to the early dinner party days. and every inch inside is his vision. so how flynn is this restaurant?

aesthetically, in terms of food? when someone walks into gem, are they getting the flynn mcgary experience? are they getting their own? >> i mean, it's about as spot-on as you can get. it's exactly my like taste as far as the food goes, as far as the design goes. by the time you-this restaurant, you feel like you know me. >> reporter: perfect or not, mcgary is swinging for the fences even on new york terms. dinner is up to 15 courses. >> fresh tofu that we made. mackerel. just cure it a little bit here in salt. smoked and dried tomatoes -- >> reporter: and it's not cheap. a meal at gem will run you over $150 a person. a dish pretty enough to frame. but don't expect this chef to buy into the insta-hype. what is the worst food trend that you're seeing right now? >> cheeseburger with mac and cheese. like let's stack everything that's grossly decadent on top of each other. i've never liked that -- that makes me cringe. >> reporter: an old soul at 19?

it's easy to forget flynn is younger than most of his staff. >> i work seven days a week. that's not sustainable in the slightest regard. and that's fine. if all this went away tomorrow, i'd be fine. it's better to do something that's kind of more daring and bold when you're 19. >> reporter: that's all he seems to want. not to be the boy wonder of the kitchen, but to one day just be known and respected as chef. have we peaked? have we reached the mountaintop? >> no, i think it is an interesting but also freeing thought to have reached the point. it's a very interesting point to be at, especially when you're 19 years old that now this dictates anything that comes next. >> reporter: for "nightline," i'm ashan singh in new york city. and next, oscars, new wruls and new category for hollywood's biggest broadcast.

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coming. in recent years, the oscars have been awarded to small-budget indie films like "the shape of water" or "moonlight." a new category could put bill-time blockbusters center stage. coming soon, the outstanding achievement in popular film award could pave the way for "black panther" or "wonder woman" to take home the trophy. also announced the broadcast will be capped at three hours, with the more technical awards given out during commercial breaks. the academy awards will come earlier to get ahead of award season fatigue. it was alfred hitchcock who said, a good film is when the price of the dinner, the theater admission, and theabysitter wereit. htne nur "nightline" facebook page. thanks for the company, america. good nht

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