Ghost Guns
"Ghost guns" (AP Photo/Haven Daley)
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Note: the 30% number quoted by Vice is according to Michael Bloomberg’s anti-gun agitprop operation The Trace.

Everytown for Gun Safety, the gun control advocacy group founded by 2020 candidate Michael Bloomberg, wants to know why ATF won’t crack down on ghost guns, since they had regulated them in the past. On Thursday, Everytown filed a petition with ATF asking it to “correct its own failure to regulate untraceable ghost guns.”

ATF did not respond to VICE News’ request for comment.

Ghost guns are typically sold in kits online, costing between $250 to $500, with parts that can be easily assembled into a fully-functioning firearm — meaning anyone can build their own high-powered AR-style rifle, and the government will never know about it.

Initially a niche hobby enjoyed by firearm enthusiasts, these kits have become attractive to criminals or criminal enterprises because of the untraceability. According to ATF, 30% of firearms recovered at crime scenes in California in an unspecified period are ghost guns.

“Whether it’s made from a kit with minimal assembly or purchased fully assembled, a gun causes the same devastation in the wrong hands,” Eric Tirschwell, managing director of litigation and national enforcement at Everytown Law, said in a statement. “With this petition, we’re not just saying that ATF is uniquely positioned to keep ghost guns out of the wrong hands.”

– Tess Owen in Everytown Is Going After the ATF for Not Regulating Untraceable ‘Ghost Guns’

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60 COMMENTS

  1. And being able to trace a gun post-facto helps prevent the crime how?

    And regulating kit guns prevents lawbreakers from stealing them or buying them on the street how?

    • Exactly this. In CA, we’re now required to have all “ghost guns” serialized and engraved per ATF **manufacturer** standards, and any receivers milled out from 80% after Jul 1, 2018 now require permission and an assigned serial number (de facto registration) from the CADOJ. You know, to prevent crime somehow?

      I cannot tell you how many people here are engraving one or two to be able to take them to a public range or use for home defense (because they’ll end up in a police report), but keeping the rest unserialized, private, and off the government’s radar. Because registering with the very government that wants to take them from you someday is absurd.

    • Well, there’s a subtext in all this (there always seems to be one) in that what the gun-controllers really want is a national firearms registry . . . which, of course, would be a fundamental violation of the “armed citizenry” intentions of founders. The 2nd Amendment is intended to give armed citizens the rights and ability to resist governmental tyranny. That’s a bit hard to do if the government knows exact who owns what. Further a gun registration quickly puts the government in charge of who may and may not own guns. Similarly, the “weapons of war” trope is also a violation of the intent inscribed in the 2nd. How can an armed citizenry form itself into a militia capable of resisting governmental tyranny if it is denied the very weapons needed to mount an effective resistance? The answer, of course, is that it can’t. Which is exactly what progressive gun-controllers think is right and proper.

      • I sure hope there are some challenges to state registration laws “in the pipeline” to challenge, we *really* need to address that…

  2. “According to ATF, 30% of firearms recovered at crime scenes in California in an unspecified period are ghost guns.” Was that time period 10 years or 10 minutes?

  3. “meaning anyone can build their own high-powered AR-style rifle:

    That’s a lot of buzzwords packed into one sentence.

    “and the government will never know about it.”

    Yeah, ain’t it awesome? 🙂

  4. “Everytown for Gun Safety, the gun control advocacy group founded by 2020 candidate Michael Bloomberg, wants to know why ATF won’t crack down on ghost guns, since they had regulated them in the past.”

    Really? When?

      • NY State is trying but honestly when would you trust most politicians to tell the truth about anything inconvient to their interests?

        • I remember 20-30 years back when you buy ‘kit’ guns like de-milled Sten submachine guns for about 70 bucks, no FFL required…

        • The Stens didn’t have usable receivers. Of course, you could get a pipe and template to make one, but you’d be manufacturing a machine gun.

        • The receivers were torch-cut in two directions, if memory serves, but the barrel was O.K.

          Yeah, there was no way to make them legal (open bolt), with the MG registry closed.

          Now, if we can take care of that, I would be interested in a clunker-machine gun like a MAC or Sten for an expensive-to-feed range toy… 🙂

    • It’s a rich guy thing.
      Trump did it so now every rich guy has to from Bloomberg to Steyer.
      Don’t be surprised to see Gates, Musk, Bezos, et al to give it a go.
      Keeping up with the Jones’ for the nine figure plus crowd.

  5. I don’t care what Everytown or Bloombergs opinion is. They do their thing, I’ll do my thing. If their thing infringes on my thing, there will be consequences. 😉

  6. There are 300-400 million guns in the US. If guns were the problem, we’d already all be dead.

    And if prohibited people are knowingly skirting the law by building “ghost guns,” how does passing another law stop criminals from continuing to break the law? Asking for a friend….

  7. enough with all this fake outrage.. I blame the husbands for not dickin’ down their wives so they stay at home and mind their own business.. Bloomberg is a traitor to America. .

  8. What does alcohol and tobacco have to do with guns? Well besides the lets get drunk and shoot cigaretese . So the gub is insinuating thatfiregunms are a vice or addiction? I do not get the coronation between booze and gunms

  9. Guns were not required to have serial numbers until 1968. The shotgun I got for my13th birthday legally has no serial number- and it works fine.

    • Nice try, Pg(2). Maybe you can actually contribute to the conversation and say something related to (and only about) guns?

      Like an adult?

      Maybe?

    • Bad analogy. Ghost guns aren’t illegal (generally) but crack is.

      What you should have said is: The ATF cant regulate ghost guns anymore than the FDA can regulate backyard gardens.

  10. Bloomturd and his every town Demanding Commie Mommy’s fail to comprehend many things,any one can manufacture their own arms,always have and there is Nobody to know or care,rather like baking a cake on your own. what a bunch of dishonest Morons.

  11. According to the ATF, 30% of firearms recovered in crime incidents in California in unspecified periods are ghost guns. The time period was 10 years or 10 minutes

  12. I fully believe the 30% statistic out of California. Question is how many of those ghost guns were confiscated only because they were unregistered evil hardware and how many were used in the commission of an actual crime.

    • Perhaps they are confusing guns with ground-off serial numbers for actual “ghost guns”. Isn’t removing an existing serial number already a crime?

      • Your right. By law a firearm that requires serial identification (those made prior to 68 exempt) in California is a ghost gun. So basically it really is just guns missing serial numbers, homemade or not.

  13. Pipe + cap + nail + elastic + metal strips + screws/nails + piece of wood = zip gun. Only one shot, but perfectly legal as long as it’s a long gun or you rifle the pipe. You can see some really nice examples from countries that have restrictive gun laws. Serviceable for defense, or a “gun to get a gun” like Liberator.

  14. Two nights ago I saw back to back to back Bloomie ads on “prime time “tv, He’s pulling out all of the stops and can’t even get a primary vote for three months……………it’s happening.
    Wait tilol next year !

    • Bloomberg bought and paid for the Dems victory in VA. Now he is running ads all the time. I’m getting sick of turning the sound off so I don’t have to hear his crap. Heard on the radio that he is dumping millions on advertising but to the common man that would be like $200 since Bloomberg is so rich.

  15. With enough pressure on the ATF by the new Democratic President they can and will do what they have done in the past. They simply publish a “new regulation” at 9 AM , have a public hearing at 12PM and outlaw whatever they wish by 5PM. Remember the Street Sweeper Shotgun, the ATF did not like its name so they banned it. And remember the SPAS Shotgun. Its gone to. Remember the “wallet holster”, gone too and it was not even a gun but a piece of leather. What will the ATF ban next, air and water? Whoops Trump already did that with his cancellation of Obama’s clean air and water regulations.

    And remember our corrupt system “a Representative” Government of the rich and by the rich (oligarchy) dictates that the richest man buys the election, its not won so guess who has the most money and guess who is going to be the Dems nomination. Bloomy.

  16. So what would prevent anyone from machining the manufactures serial number off and placing their own number (or not) on it and calling it a home build. How would anyone prove otherwise? How about making some other machine marks on the receiver, how would anyone ever prove anyone removed the serial numbers? Just asking?.

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