A leading manufacturer of ghost guns has agreed to stop selling its untraceable, unassembled firearms to Maryland residents under a settlement agreement announced Wednesday by the city of Baltimore.
City leaders sued the company, Nevada-based Polymer80, two years ago “in response to the rapid escalation of ghost guns appearing on Baltimore streets and in the hands of minors,” according to the mayor’s office. Officials said the settlement grants the city all measures of relief requested in the lawsuit, including $1.2 million in damages.
“Nine out of ten homicides in Baltimore City are committed with guns,” Mayor Brandon Scott said in a statement. “This settlement — and the statement it sends about the harmful impact of these ghost guns — is a critical victory for the effort to confront gun violence in our communities.”
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The term “ghost gun” includes firearms that have had the serial number removed. That’s what people are using to commit crimes. Hardly anyone is going to go through the trouble of building a gun to commit a crime when it’s so much easier to buy a stolen gun that someone filed the serial number off of.
Essentially nobody uses ghost guns to commit crime. This is more security theater. It sounds scary so we do a feel-good thing that is utterly useless. Politicians get points, but problems remain so they still have a platform to run on.
There are plenty of guns stolen to arm criminals. I don’t just mean from regular guys like me but also from gun stores. One place in the Metro area got hit twice with smash and grab. Bad guys drove a fucking truck through the front of the store through the security fencing, tossed a shitload of stuff in the van and took off. The place put cement barriers in front to prevent it. Someone hit it again. I don’t recall if they somehow drove through the barriers or got in another way. The place went out of business not long after.
“Ghost gun” is a more-than-somewhat nebulous term, historically it meant any firearm that was untraceable.
Usually, they’re guns that are stolen, reported stolen (but just sold,); or bought through the gunshow loophole, and such.
But the news people latch it on”3d printed guns” (or otherwise manufactured,) as a false equivalency to ghost guns; and use the metrics for the first as for the second.
The irony is there’s nothing stopping an individual who is otherwise legally permitted a firearm, from making their own firearm. All the ATF really cares about is that you’re not selling it, and that it’s registered with all of the relevant taxes paid.
From their perspective, a 3d printer is just a tool.
This is what I hate about the rhetoric around gun control, especially “ghost guns”
As a gun owner that thinks guns are fucking cool, I’m happy to have reasonable compromises and regulations around them. Compromises and regulations that do something to stop crime. Almost all cases of 3D printed guns being used in crime are when the crime is having a 3D printed firearm (mostly in Europe). Actual violent crime it is a fraction of a fraction of a fraction. We should focus on legislation that does something about the problem, not ban things we arbitrarily give scary names like “Ghost guns.” Look at the actual numbers, the actual types of crimes being committed, go after those things. Don’t start background checking people for 3D printer purchases of all things.
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Hey, stop poking holes in the narrative man, GuNS R baD!