Homemade, unserialized firearms are nothing new. They’ve been around since before this nation was this nation. People have always made guns on their own.

Yet thanks to modern technology, more people can do so now than was previously possible. That’s because people can make their own receivers, either through an incomplete receiver or with a 3D printer.

And as a result, people are freaking out. It doesn’t help when the media sensationalizes that concern, either, like what recently happened in Asheville, North Carolina.

Over 16 months, Asheville has seen a 1,000 percent increase in privately made firearms or “ghost guns” recovered during other crimes.

1,000 percent?

Really?

Well, it seems so, but that’s where things get wonky.

Last August, the Department of Justice Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, in an effort to curb the number of ghost guns found on the streets, changed its definition of a firearm to include gun kits. The goal is to help reduce the number of unmarked and hard-to-trace ghost guns by establishing requirements for federally licensed firearms dealers and gunsmiths to have a serial number added to 3D printed guns or other un-serialized firearms they take into inventory by including a serial number on the frame or receiver.

Across its Facebook page, the Asheville Police Department has included the images of some of the 11 privately made firearms or ghost guns officers have recovered since September 2022. It’s a 1,000 percent increase from the eight months prior.

That’s right. We’re talking about 11 whole “ghost guns.”

See, this is why it’s impossible to have a reasonable discussion about these kinds of firearms. It’s because we get reports of this massive increase in unserialized firearms, only to find out we’re talking about just 11 guns.

Yet at least this time we have a total number to look at. Usually, they just give us a percentage of increase and leave it there. They don’t give us anything else to go on to effectively evaluate the issue for ourselves, which feels like it’s by design.

Ironically, part of what is leading this is the media itself.

You see, people in the gun community knew you could get these kits for years and years. Many did and built their own firearms without issue. They didn’t break the law and it didn’t matter.

Then the politicians and media got wind of it and started making a huge stink, talking about how criminals could bypass gun control laws and build so-called ghost guns. That’s right, they even gave it a scary name so the media had something to hold onto.

Well, some of the bad guys found out and started taking advantage of this fact.

As a result, we’re then told we need to give up our ability to build firearms because they alerted every thug in the nation to a way to get a gun without having to steal it or buy a stolen gun on the black market, then get bent out of shape when we don’t roll over.

So they keep making stories all about how horrible the issue is, but when you dig, you find out that most bad guys are still using stolen guns.

It’s not an issue now and it’s unlikely to be an issue going forward, but any “credit” for what issue exists really does fall on the media.