There’s been an awful lot of fear surrounding so-called ghost guns. The media has beaten the drum repeatedly about the alleged danger presented by these weapons. The President of the United States has acted like they’re a significant issue as well. Meanwhile, millions of law-abiding citizens build weapons in their own homes and backyards without ever committing a single crime.

Yet some people don’t like the practice. They want to ban it entirely, and that includes Democrats in the state of Nevada, which is a step closer to doing just that.

A bill that would ban the sale or possession of untraceable firearms, so-called ghost guns, has steadily progressed in the Nevada Legislature with full Democratic support, but Republicans and pro-gun groups have been pushing back fiercely claiming AB 286 is overreaching and violates Nevadan’s Second Amendment rights.

During a contentious hours-long hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee, both sides clashed over the bill’s potential benefits and drawbacks.

“This is what we’re talking about,” Brady United representative Steve Lindley said, while holding up an unfinished lower frame of a Glock-like handgun.

He says the frame was roughly 85% complete and would only require a person to drill a few holes, shave a few extra pieces, and add the extra components like a trigger and barrel to have a fully functioning firearm.

The problem, he said, is the incomplete frame wasn’t considered a firearm by the ATF and didn’t need to be serialized, tracked, and records didn’t need to be kept of any sale.

“The frame wasn’t subject to background checks or any other regulations because it wasn’t legally considered a firearm,” Lindley said. “And that’s why guns like it have been called ghost guns.”

And we live in the era of the 3D printer where you can churn out such lower receivers over and over and over again. The “ghost gun” isn’t going to go anywhere.

Plus, it’s already been illegal to make these weapons for sale, and selling one without a serial number was also illegal. This isn’t really going to accomplish much of anything, other than putting people in prison for possessing a gun that they legally built.

"If passed, all ghost guns with a few exceptions like antiques would have to be sold, surrendered, or destroyed by January 1st, 2022."

So much for "no one wants to take your guns" 🙄 https://t.co/BRLUjf9pqQ

— 𝙵𝚒𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚖𝚜 𝙿𝚘𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚢 𝙲𝚘𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 (@gunpolicy) May 19, 2021

But, it’ll make Nevada’s anti-gun crowd happy and allow them to fundraise off of this “success” without actually making anyone any safer.

All it will do is make things more difficult for law-abiding citizens who like to build their own firearms. Those are the same people you could hand a rocket launcher and they wouldn’t hurt a fly. Those are the people who will be unable to own these kinds of weapons.

The criminals who represent the problem aren’t going to stop making these guns. They’re not going to stop selling these guns. They’re going to keep on going and nothing will change for anyone except those law-abiding souls who lose yet another aspect of their Second Amendment rights.

Ghost guns aren’t going anywhere. The sooner lawmakers come to terms with that, the easier it will go for everyone else.