The Rise of Untraceable ‘Ghost Guns’ the Wall Street Journal headline proclaims. An emerging black-market gun-making industry lets buyers bypass background checks and gun regulations, authorities say the sub-head adds. Oh no! . . .
Americans exercising their right to keep and bear arms without background checks and gun regulations! Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria! Or, if you’re the WSJ . . .
Because the guns bear no serial numbers, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is unable to track them. Serial numbers and gun registration play a key role in police and government investigations, allowing officers to trace a weapon’s history and owners.
Citation? *crickets chirping*
In fact, where a criminal gets his or her gun is all but completely irrelevant. So much so that the ATF doesn’t publish any data on the number of firearm traces that led to an arrest or conviction. Nor, as it turns out, the number of “ghost guns” it buys. Yes, buys.
About 250 ghost guns were seized or purchased in undercover buys by his Sacramento agents in 2017, he said. While statistics from the previous year weren’t available, Mr. Barlowe noted that his office has seen a rise in the number of busts. The ATF doesn’t keep track of ghost gun seizures nationwide.
Entrapment much?
The WSJ singularly, spectacularly fails to mention the reason behind the rise of the non-criminal market for “ghost guns”: law-abiding Americans who want to exercise their right to keep and bear arms without background checks and gun regulations. Because they don’t trust the government. Nor the mainstream media. For good reason.