While New York has a ways to go before they reach California’s level of gun grab, it seems that Governor Andrew Cuomo likes a challenge. In recent years, he’s pushed for more and more gun control in what looks like an effort to challenge California for the title of most gun controlled state in the nation.

Cuomo’s latest effort appears to be targetted at so-called “ghost guns” as well as gun parts.

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the 18th proposal of his 2020 State of the State agenda — banning untraceable “ghost guns” by requiring firearm parts be sold only to authorized buyers, requiring the same eligibility requirements as a completed firearm and that all major parts receive a serial number.

The Governor’s proposal would ban individuals from obtaining major components of a firearm, rifle or shotgun online; instead, individuals would need to ship these parts to a licensed gun dealer where they would be picked up in person. The proposal would prohibit individuals who are forbidden to possess a firearm, rifle or shotgun from owning a major component of these guns, and create new misdemeanor and felony penalties for violating these new provisions. 

“New York has the strongest gun safety protections in the nation, but every day dangerous people seek to find new ways around them,” Governor Cuomo said. “This common sense measure would ban these untraceable guns and require anyone who wants to build their own firearm to come out of the shadows once and for all.” 

Of course, this would have a massive impact on even gun repairs.

Currently, the ATF only considers the lower receiver as the “gun” and all other parts aren’t required to be serialized and can be shipped to just about anyone. After all, none of those parts are useful without a lower receiver. The ATF also finds that it’s only a receiver if it’s 80 percent or more complete. This gives people an opportunity to build firearms without having to jump through federal hoops.

This isn’t anything new. I first built a firearm over a decade ago and it wasn’t even new then.

While media reports continue to surface about how these guns represent a “growing problem,” what we generally lack are anything approaching hard numbers. We don’t see what percentage of firearms seized from criminals these represent and how that number has gone up or down over the years.

It’s entirely possible that those numbers simply don’t exist, but if so, how are we supposed to take the claim seriously?

Cuomo makes this sound like some shadowy effort to arm criminals, demanding that backyard gunsmiths come “out of the shadows once and for all,” but what he’s doing is forcing them deeper into the shadows. Many of those who do this kind of thing won’t really care. They’ll jump through the hoops because it’s simply not an issue for them. They’ll gripe, but they’ll still jump.

Others, however, aren’t building guns for criminals. They’re building guns off the books because they recognize that the existence of a paper trail via Form 4473s gives the government way too much information should they decide to confiscate guns. They want something off the books that they can use to resist that brand of tyranny.

Granted, that’s not an answer Cuomo is like to accept.

Meanwhile, what’s going to happen to the actual criminals who build these guns for other criminals? Oh, they’ll get a PO Box across state lines and have the parts shipped there. Or they’ll have a friend receive them and shipped them to New York directly.

Absolutely nothing is going to happen and we all know it.

Yet Cuomo is still going to try to shut it down, even though I can’t believe even he is stupid enough to think the criminals won’t work around this. Maybe that’s because it’s not about public safety but about public perception?

Cuomo wants to look tough on guns and nothing else.