For years, I've been pointing out how the hysteria around privately made firearms, often termed as "ghost guns" by the media, is overblown and presented without context.
After all, telling me there was a 400 percent increase in "ghost gun" recoveries sounds terrible...until you find out that this is from a baseline of just, say, four such weapons having been recovered. I'm sorry, but 16 guns isn't exactly terrifying.
Plus, some recent studies are finding that "ghost gun" recoveries aren't correlating to higher homicide rates.
But that won't stop the media from talking about them like they're the worst thing ever, and trotting out whoever they can to advance that narrative.
espite federal regulations forcing the country's largest ghost gun kit manufacturer out of business, parts needed to build untraceable firearms remain readily available online, according to an 11Alive News investigation.
Say the word "gun," and most people have an opinion. For some any restriction is a violation of the second amendment. Bryan Muehlberger says earlier in his life, he probably would have agreed.
“It's easy to be on the one side until you're on the other side, until you're sitting in my shoes. I probably would have said the same thing naively. You don't have the right to take my guns away, but then put yourself on my side and go,” said Muehlberger.
Now Muehlberger says the issue isn’t as black and white. His change of heart came after a piece of it, died. In 2019, his 15-year-old daughter Gracie was killed in a school shooting in California. Police believe the 16-year-old shooter used a privately made firearm—commonly known as a ghost gun—before taking his own life. Two students died and three others were injured in the attack.
It's absolutely awful, but I can honestly tell Muehlberger that I have been on his side. I've lost someone I deeply cared about to a mass killer, and I still say you don't have the right to take my guns away. Our own Ryan Petty has also been there.
So yeah, we know what we'd do because we've done it. The fact that he didn't doesn't mean his experience is universal.
However, while Atlanta's 11 Alive pushes this narrative, they also spoke with a sheriff who didn't exactly help their cause.
Sheriff Ron Freeman of Forsyth County, who heads Georgia's Sheriffs Association, noted that ghost guns are typically more expensive than firearms purchased illegally on the street and require technical skill to assemble.
Freeman acknowledged that while some teenagers could acquire the necessary metalworking and precision skills to build the more complicated AR weapons, such cases would be rare.
Of course, they go and cite cases where it seems that happened, but anecdotes don't disprove the rarity of those cases.
See, what the anti-"ghost gun" jihadists never seem to do is show any data that shows how these guns are somehow arming people who couldn't be armed otherwise. The reason anti-gun studies were unable to find a link between these firearms and an increase in the homicide rate, despite what I'm sure was a profound desire to do just that, is that bad guys have access to black market guns, will steal guns on their own, or get someone else to buy a traditionally manufactured firearm. They don't need so-called ghost guns to be armed.
Those who are found with them likely could have found some other means to acquire a firearm if they wanted; they just went with one made without a serial number, possibly misunderstanding the media hysteria about gun tracing.
The price, though, is going to be higher than a stolen gun since whoever made the firearm will want to recoup his costs and make a little on top of that. A stolen gun can go for just a few dollars, and the thief will still make a profit. This is economics 101.
Freeman is clearly not buying into the hysteria, so I'm glad that the head of the Sheriff's Association is someone with more sense than the media ever had.
Editor's Note: The mainstream media continues to lie about gun owners and the Second Amendment.
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