Ghost guns accounted for more than 40% of guns confiscated by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and one-third of crime guns recovered by the Los Angeles Police Department in 2020.
On Oct. 19, the LAPD reported to the police commission on the “epidemic” of ghost guns, which department officials say have increased “exponentially over the last year.”
“The current trend shows these figures will continue to grow exponentially,” according to the LAPD report, which notes that 3D printing allows the components to be more accessible.
“‘Ghost guns’ are replacing firearms people would normally purchase, with no background checks required,” according to the report.
Between January and June of this year, 863 ghost guns were recovered, more than the 813 recovered during the entire year of 2020. So far in 2021, 1,445 “ghost guns” have been recovered, a 202% increase over last year, according to the LAPD.
“…one third of crime guns…” It’s already against the law to commit a crime with a gun. So what is it they hope to change with another law? It would be so easy to make it near zero percent of guns confiscated be “ghost guns”. Remove the restrictions on guns which have serial numbers and the “ghost gun” problem would go away.
That the ordinance was proposed by the same guy, Councilmen Paul Koretz, who said this tells the world all we need to know:
This is absolutely ridiculous to think that the manufacture, sale and marketing of these weapons is intended for anything but skirting a loophole in the state and federal gun laws to get firearms into the hands of people who law enforcement and we as a society have deemed as unfit to possess those guns.
As long as there are criminals in the public wanting a gun to commit a crime there will be guns available to them. This is Black Market 101 stuff here. Look at the failed 100 year long ban on some recreational drugs.
If society knows who are “unfit to to possess those guns” then there can be no justification for those people to remain in public. That Koretz makes no effort to remove such people from the public tells us he is representing them and their agenda. They are literally his constituents.
Koretz compounds his evil allegiance with criminals by making it more difficult for innocent people to obtain cheap firearms to protect themselves from Koretz’s criminal constituents.
One has to wonder if he is another Leland Yee who is running a gun smuggling business on the side and doesn’t want the homemade guns competing with his guns. Regardless, what he is doing is illegal and I look forward to his trial.
That’s some lie they got going there. Just in time for the roll-out of new gun control laws, by Crappie Joe & crew.
As a criminal in California will tell you. Getting busted with a stolen gun is only a misdemeanor. So why not just carry a stolen one? Why bother grinding the serial numbers off?
Either that or the cartels started up a new enterprise?
Lies, all of it.
My favorite image of a firearm featured on a “ghost gun” scaremongering article depicted a evidence technician holding a polymer 80 lower. Clearly visible on the Glock factory slide and barrel were matching serials.
Better luck next time gents.
Even if those numbers are circling somewhere near reality, that’s a lot of production for basement operations. That’s a lot of completion parts AKA the entire rest of the gun. Nobody is 3D printing barrels and slides even with the very best filament. Even divided between completing 80%s and additive manufacturing, are there that many 3D printers and cutting machines in the area? How much of this alleged production is intended for the criminal trade? The compass needle is starting to waver toward a clandestine industry.
Be that as it may, the entire issue is a misdirection. The tool is not the actor, the actor is. This is not a machinery problem, it is a criminal problem. As long as the responsibility of individuals in avoided, the parade in the wrong direction will continue. This is a criminal individual problem. “The criminal class is the natural ally of the political class.”
After the Dot Com Bust, most of the machine shops in the Bay Area shut down, and auctioned off their equipment. A lot of the milling machines and lathes appeared to be bought by people running shops in their home garage. I would not be surprised to find the same thing happened in Southern CA. Not much call for the old manual equipment for production use anymore, but it’s not uncommon to drive around residential areas and see a Bridgeport mill when the garage door is open. Horizontal lathes are not as obvious from the street.
Yep, and they are not just old. The used market is limited, but new machines are readily available. CNC routers, milling machines, lathes, and 3D printers are fairly cheap in the consumer market. Do a search on Amazon, AliExpress, or Grizzly. You can even buy a fully equipped gunsmithing lathe from Grizzly for less than the price of a Barrett. Admittedly, the gunsmithing lathe as well of many other tools are Chinese, but they are relatively cheap and can be refurbished to improve precision.
140% of a very small number is…still a very small number.
Notice how they don’t give you the raw figures. Suggestive of a n article designed to scare and emotionally manipulate, rather than to inform.
My guess is that by far the majority of unserialized “ghost” guns will only ever see the occasional playtime at the range, and the inside of a safe. Crime scenes are undoubtedly the exception, not the rule. Just like with serialized guns.
The raw numbers are there. Read the fifth quoted paragraph. They aren’t something I would consider particularly small (~1000).
But regardless of the numbers it’s a people problem, not a hardware problem.
Here is another question for them, “How many cases have been solved or a conviction was obtained because a gun had a serial number?” In the late 1990s the answers from Hawaii and Canada were zero and one.