The so-called ghost gun is simply defined as a firearm with no serial number. That's always been a bad definition because it lumped antique firearms, stolen guns with scratched-out serial numbers, and privately made firearms all in one basket, then used the numbers to go after privately made guns as if they were the totality of the issue.
Now, kits are a thing of the past.
However, the Supreme Court, which upheld the ATF rule, also said you could still make your own gun. The ATF's rule addressed kits, which included everything you needed to make a firearm in one handy package, which they convinced the Court was just a little too close to a complete firearm.
But so-called ghost guns were never just kits. 3D printed guns have been a thing for some time, and they're pretty damn cool considering they're impossible to restrict.
Which, of course, bothers people like Everytown for Gun Safety.
Now, they're trying to spin these guns into a new hysteria.
As police departments around the country report a surge in 3D-printed firearms turning up at crime scenes, gun safety advocates and law enforcement officials are warning that a new generation of untraceable weapons could soon eclipse the "ghost guns" that have already flooded US streets.
At a summit in New York City on Thursday, the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety will bring together policymakers, academics, 3D-printing industry leaders and law enforcement officials to confront the growing challenge.
They fear that as the printers become cheaper and more sophisticated — and blueprints for gun parts spread rapidly online — the US could be on the brink of another wave of unregulated, homemade weapons that evade serial-number tracking and background checks.
Numbers collected by Everytown from about two dozen police departments show how quickly the problem is growing: A little over 30 3D-printed guns were recovered in 2020. By 2024, that figure had climbed above 300. While still a fraction of the tens of thousands of firearms seized each year by the nation's nearly 18,000 police departments, the spike mirrors the early trajectory of ghost guns — build-it-yourself weapons assembled from kits that for years eluded federal regulation.
"We are now starting to see what kind of feels very familiar," said Nick Suplina, senior vice president of law and policy at Everytown. "It's now at a small number of recoveries in certain major cities, such that it’s doubling or tripling year over year. We're seeing this very familiar rate of growth and that’s why we’re getting this group together to discuss how to stop it."
Again, these are the same kind of guns. Not everyone has used a kit with a less than 80 percent receiver included. Some printed their receivers and used parts from traditionally manufactured guns to complete the firearm. Others print as many parts as they can. It's just what they do, and while there are no hard numbers, I'd be shocked if fewer than 90 percent of the people who print guns are doing so with the intention of breaking the law.
Some might just want guns that are "off the books," simply because they don't trust the federal government--a sentiment I understand completely--while others might just think it's cool to play with a relatively new technology.
But the truth is that this isn't some new issue. These guns fell under the category of "ghost gun" from the start.
The problem is that Everytown needs a new crisis to focus on. They're tired of hearing about Virginia Attorney General candidate Jay Jones, whom they endorsed and haven't really backed away from formally, despite news that he said some pretty depraved things. They probably could use some shiny object for the media to focus on.
3D printers are here to stay, and people are going to make guns on them. That was a given from the jump. The moment Defense Distributed introduced its Liberator model, the writing was on the wall. Gun control really was a non-starter since anyone could make a gun if they wanted to.
Everytown is just scared that they're fading into irrelevance. If lawmakers accept this and start looking at other ways to combat so-called gun crime, they're out of a job and they know it, so they keep trying to spin the issue as if it can be solved and that it's even a massive problem.
It's not, especially as there's not a single bit of data to suggest that criminals found with one of these guns couldn't have gotten a gun via some other means.
They just know that no one in the mainstream media will ask them about it.
Editor’s Note: The Schumer Shutdown is here. Rather than put the American people first, Chuck Schumer and the radical Democrats forced a government shutdown for healthcare for illegals. They own this.
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