The quote of the day is presented by Guns.com.
No national consensus exists on how [ghost guns] should be regulated. New York and several other Northeastern states have simply outlawed their sale or purchase. California recently enacted Assembly Bill 879, which tries to balance concern over the potential criminal use of ghost guns with the legitimate interest of hobbyists. California’s new ghost gun law treats ghost gun kits more like actual firearms. Parts can be bought only through licensed dealers in face-to-face transactions. Parts bought over the internet must be shipped to a licensed dealer to close the deal, and sales between private parties must also go through a licensed dealer. A purchaser must be at least 21 years of age and pass a state background check.
However, parts of the law won’t take effect for years. Dealers who sell precursor parts will not even need licenses until July 2024. And background checks for individual purchasers of precursor parts will not go into effect until July 2025. Even after the law goes into effect, preexisting guns without serial numbers will remain hard to trace. And some new guns made from parts will likewise be difficult to trace. Not everyone will apply for a serial number even though it’s legally required. The people who buy a given model of precursor part but who do not call and get a serial number can be identified, but it will still take time to trace a particular gun.
AB 879 is a good first step, but it must be regarded as only a starting point. We will need additional legislation, and before we do anything, we need better numbers. Federal and state agencies should regularly disclose what data they possess about ghost guns so that policy can be better tailored to address the problem. Once we generate better estimates about the scope of the ghost gun problem, then we can determine what to do next.
– James William Gibson in California is flooded with ‘ghost’ guns, and a new state law won’t fix it
