Will New Regulations Lead To 'Ghost Guns'?

As Congressional Democrats push for more laws at the federal level, their counterparts in the state houses are pushing forward their own version of the same laws. Anti-gun politicians are in a full-court press, and they’re desperate to cram new gun control legislation down our throats.

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However, now some in the media are pondering the unintended consequences of such legislation.

As more restrictions are placed on gun ownership, more people — and criminals — could start to manufacture their own, law enforcement experts tell ABC News.

The issue of “ghost guns” or guns without serial numbers has been thrust into the national spotlight after California authorities revealed that the man who engaged in a string of shootings earlier this week that left five dead had two firearms that he manufactured at home.

[Tehama County Assistant Sheriff Phil] Johnston said that as gun laws become more restrictive, criminals will begin to build their own. ABC News consultants, former NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and former FBI agent Steve Gomez, said they agree with him.

People are already building firearms or modifying existing firearms in an “unlicensed and illegal manner,” Gomez said.

I can see the concern, but I also have to ask what they want to do about it.

After all, instructions for building guns in your backyard have been around for ages, and while the Tehama County shooter may have used a more traditional weapon, he could have done something very different. He could have built a submachine gun in his backyard.

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So-called “ghost guns” may well be a concern for law enforcement, but is that concern overblown?

For most of the nation, probably. For California, the concern is that these guns aren’t registered. In other words, people have them and the state doesn’t get to know every little thing.

It’s almost like bad people don’t actually follow the law. Shocking, I know, but we have the Tehama County killer broke multiple laws well before his rampage, so maybe there’s something to that?

Of course, some enterprising politico will probably try and use this incident to shut down backyard builds. They’ll cite the public safety concerns of how people who do so circumvent background checks and whatnot and try to kill an aspect of this hobby. What they don’t get is that it won’t stop people from building their own guns.

No, what’ll happen is that it’ll stop people from building semi-automatic guns, guns that are essentially the same thing permitted on the market now. People who are building guns today want to do so lawfully, so they build guns that meet the legal requirements.

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Take that way, and the only people building guns will be people who are already looking at doing time if they get caught. That means there’s no incentive to mimic lawful firearms currently sitting on gun store shelves. They’re already looking at prison time, right? Why not go all the way and build short barreled rifles, full auto weapons, and so on?

The vast majority of the people building guns in their backyard–these so-called “ghost guns”–are simply people who like to build things, and since they’re into guns, that’s a natural outlet.

The people building them for nefarious purposes? You’re never going to stop them.

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