DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — New laws limiting sales of kits used to make what have come to be known as “ghost guns” have gone into effect. These unassembled firearm kits can be ordered online, are easily assembled at home and, until now, did not require background checks. And because they have had no serial numbers, they could not be traced.
“That's become problematic for us, because now the bad guys can get guns just as easily as the good guys,” said Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub.
New federal regulations that went into effect this week subject those kits to the same rules as traditional handguns, including required background checks and traceable serial numbers. Prosecutors say they welcome the changes.
Weintraub says ghost guns have been a growing concern, showing up at more and more crime scenes, and the new rules are a step in the right direction.
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“They're not going to take any guns out of the hands of people that legally can possess them, but they will allow us to trace guns that get into the hands of people that possess them illegally, or certainly any gun that's used to commit a crime,” he said.
“We're just trying to close another avenue of illegal possession of guns or illegal use of a legal gun for criminal purposes.”
The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives says the number of privately made handguns recovered by law enforcement has skyrocketed, from 1,758 in 2016 to 19,344 in 2021.
Companies that make the kits are challenging the regulations in court, saying they’re too broad. But two federal judges, one in North Dakota and one in Texas, recently denied requests to block the rules as they went into effect.
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