Our friends at Ammoland have been on a story swirling around a “journalist” at NBC News and a hit piece the network ran on “ghost guns” and Pennsylvania-based JSD Supply. Step into the Wayback Machine for a moment and travel with us to last March when Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro — one of the most ardent anti-gun politicians in the nation — pressured gun show operator Eagle Arms to ban JSD from its shows in the state.
JSD’s offense: selling perfectly legal 80% build kits to customers in full accordance with the laws of Pennsylvania and the United States.
Shapiro’s hopes were dashed, however, when Eagle subsequently reversed its decision. JSD later bought Eagle which means the company no longer has to worry about being banned from selling its legal 80% build kits at Eagle’s gun shows in the Keystone State.
The intrepid jernalismists at NBC News (the same operation that rigged exploding trucks for its reports in the past), sent someone named Vaughn Hillyard along with a hidden camera into a gun show to buy a JSD 80% kit. Here’s the very disturbing story NBC aired . . .
An in-depth look at America’s surging ghost gun market.
Ghost guns are firearms built out of easy-to-build kits that can be purchased online or with cash at a gun show — no background check required.@VaughnHillyard shows how easy it is for people to buy and make these weapons. pic.twitter.com/iOan9hkRNv
— Top Story with Tom Llamas (@TopStoryNBC) March 17, 2022
Note that the report documents Hillyard taking the kit to “special agents from the AG’s office” who used the kit to build out a working firearm.
Wait. They did what?
That’s right. The reporter — who isn’t a Pennsylvania resident — brought the kit back into Pennsylvania and gave it to some of Attorney General Shapiro’s employees to complete.
As the Ammoland report makes clear . . .
The news crew transferred two complete “readily convertible” kits out of the parts they purchased separately at the show. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) previously viewed “buy, build, shoot” kits as readily convertible and, therefore, a firearm. The ATF even raided a company over the kits.
If the ATF still keeps to that definition, Hillyard, an out-of-state resident, transferred two “readily convertible” firearms (pistols) kits illegally to the Pennsylvania AG’s employees to complete. There is not an exception in the law for any AG’s “special agents,” which means that the agents must obey all laws.
By all appearances, it looks pretty clear that the AG’s office has taken possession of two firearms illegally!
But potential crimes do not end there. AmmoLand News believes that the guns might have been completed in Philadelphia. Philadelphia Ordinance – Chapter 10-2002 of The Philadelphia Code makes it Illegal to “convert an unfinished frame or receiver into a finished firearm.”
The Philadelphia ordinance is in some legal dispute and currently has a stay of enforcement, but the AG’s office supports the rule. Gun Owners of America is currently suing over the draconian regulation.
It’s a Crime to Build Ghost Guns for Others
It is also illegal to complete a so-called “ghost gun” for someone else. Recently the ATF inquired into a build class held by Rob Pincus to make sure no one was completing the guns for anyone else. The agent informed Pincus that the person building the firearm could not borrow tools or have someone help them complete the frame until it reached the stage where it would be considered a firearm.
A Second Illegal Firearms Transfer
Pennsylvania Statutes § 6111(b)(2) requires a transfer through an FFL and the transferee’s background to be run through PICS (PA equivalent of NICS). After the guns were completed, if the AG’s office returned the firearms to Hillyard, then the AG’s office would be breaking state law.
3rd Federal Crime
Also, if the AG’s office returned the guns to NBC reporter Vaughn Hillyard, an apparent resident of another state, then the AG’s office would be violating State & Federal law by transferring the firearm to an out-of-state resident, and Vaughn Hillyard and the NBC team would be guilty of multiple Federal Felonies and gun crimes.
Read the full Ammoland post here.
If you think anyone will be held to account for the crimes committed — on camera — during the production of this report, think again. Breaking the law in service of furthering the narrative is never considered a problem by anyone in a position of authority. Remember David Gregory and the 30-round magazine he waived around while on the set of Meet the Press in Washington, DC?
Gun control laws only apply to certain people.
