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Ending the Growing Threat of Homemade Guns

Ending the Growing Threat of Homemade Guns

Whether it’s built in a factory or homemade, a gun is a gun. So why is the do-it-yourself kind almost entirely unregulated?  

Online sellers of parts for “ghost guns” aren’t required to perform background checks on purchasers, and the components don’t have serial numbers. The finished firearms (including AR-15s and AK-47s) are effectively untraceable. Police across the country are seeing the results.

The New York City Police Department is close to recovering more ghost guns this year than in all of 2020. The Los Angeles Police Department confiscated 863 ghost guns in the first half of this year, a 400% increase over the first half of last year. In June, Philadelphia surpassed the number of ghost guns seized in all of 2020.

States are trying to fight back. Two bills await New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s signature and would constitute the toughest ghost-gun regulation in the country. One identifies and limits the sale of unfinished receivers and frames — essentially the “skeletons” and individual parts of ghost guns. The other bans the sale of assembled ghost guns, limits manufacturing of firearms to licensed gunsmiths, and requires serial numbers at every stage. Hochul should sign both. Meanwhile, California has joined San Francisco in suing several ghost-gun retailers for fraud and false advertising, saying they ignored the state’s own requirement for serial numbers and misled consumers to believe purchased gun kits were legal.  

The federal government is finally lending its support. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is working on a rule that would change the definition of a firearm and require background checks and serial numbers on ghost-gun parts. The agency should immediately rescind its previous rulings that assembled firearms are legal for sale to the public and plan an enforcement strategy for when the new rule is finalized. The feds should also be working with local law enforcement to identify and prosecute purchasers who are already prohibited. Sites that fail to comply on background checks and serial numbers should be promptly shut down. And to facilitate all this, Congress should agree to President Joe Biden’s request for more ATF funding. 

ATF, by the way, still lacks a confirmed head. The National Rifle Association squelched Biden’s first pick, David Chipman. For years, the gun lobby has prevented presidents from getting their first choice confirmed. Still, Biden has had six weeks to put forward a new nominee. He should do so without further delay. This post matters too much to be left vacant.

America’s gun laws aren’t lacking in loopholes, but the ghost-gun anomaly is among the most absurd. A competently led and adequately funded ATF can deal with it, and needs to do so before any more lives are lost.

Editorials are written by the Bloomberg Opinion editorial board.

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