HARTFORD, Conn. (WTIC Radio)—Connecticut's U.S. senators and Hartford leaders are advocating for a ban on ghost guns as another way of combatting gun violence.
At the Hartford Public Safety Complex on Friday, Hartford Police Assistant Chief Rafael Medina said ghost guns are a new and growing problem.
Ghost guns are homemade firearms that are untraceable due to the fact that they have no serial number. "The problem with ghost guns is that they bypass the checks and balances that are set in place," Medina explained.
In 2020, the Hartford Police Department seized seven ghost guns in the city. One was part of a homicide investigation, Medina said.
"This year, to date, we've already seized seven, the same amount as last year," Medina said.
U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy and Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin joined him in voicing the need to have laws in place that require ghost guns to follow the same federal regulations as completed firearms.
The Untraceable Firearms Act that Blumenthal has introduced aims to do just that.
According to Blumenthal, the bill would permanently include the core building blocks of ghost guns in the federal definition of "firearm," requiring online and other gun kit manufacturers and distributors to comply with the same regulations as other gun sellers do.
"We need a statute to permanently ban these ghost guns because they are killers just like any other gun and they should be treated just like any other gun with background checks and serial numbers required," Blumenthal said.