California Attorney General Rob Bonta is throwing his weight behind San Francisco's lawsuit against three retailers that sell "ghost guns," or firearm kits are shipped in the mail and can be self-assembled.
State officials said these companies sell the kits to skirt gun laws.
Mattie Scott told KCBS Radio that her son was shot and killed with one of those guns when he was 24. She was the one who had to tell her grandson about his father’s death on his sixth birthday.
"The scream I heard on that phone from my 6-year-old grandson is the scream that wakes me up every day to do this work," Scott, the president of Brady United Against Gun Violence, said.
San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin said it’s too easy to order a kit in the mail and assemble a gun. He said they are becoming a major problem in the city.
"In 2019, for example, in San Francisco, ghost guns were associated with a tiny fraction of gun-related homicides," Boudin said. "In 2020, ghost guns were nearly 50% of gun related homicides."
Bonta joined in the lawsuit that Boudin, a law firm and the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence filed against three companies – Blackhawk, MDX and Glockstore – alleging they promote the fact that the kits don’t require a background check and use practices to evade other gun laws.
"We assert they are employing a false and deceptive advertising practice by leading buyers to believe the frames purchased in gun kits are legal," Bonta said.
Without applying for a serial number and background check from the California Department of Justice, Bonta said in a release that such firearms remain illegal.
"We are throwing the whole kitchen sink at them based on the law and the facts," Bonta added.