Homemade ‘ghost guns’ in US falling into criminals’ hands, officials warn – By Greg Milam (Sky News) / Feb 1 2019
Authorities say people banned from owning guns in the US are getting hold of homemade weapons which are untraceable.
Top law enforcement officials in the US say they are concerned at the increase of so-called “ghost guns” falling into the hands of criminal gangs.
The weapons, also known as “80 percenters”, are created from kits designed to be built at home which are perfectly legally for personal use – but they have no serial number and are untraceable.
Federal investigators say they are seeing people prohibited from legally possessing a firearm – including those with serious criminal convictions or addicted to controlled substances – getting their hands on the weapons.
In July, agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) raided a property in Hollywood and seized dozens of homemade weapons being sold on the streets by suspected gang members.
Image:US authorities are seizing increasing numbers of homemade weapons
The head of the ATF’s Los Angeles field division says approximately a third of all weapons they now routinely recover are self-made.
Special agent-in-charge Bill McMullan told Sky News: “We have individuals that are involved in making several firearms and engaged in the business of selling those firearms to individuals who shouldn’t have them.
“Those are individuals who are violent gang members, criminal organisations in some of the most violent cities in the country.
Image: ATF’s Bill McMullan said self-made guns were being sold to criminals
“When we see that approximately 30% of the firearms we’re recovering in those investigations are self-made it definitely is a concern for us.”
In a country so familiar with the costs of gun violence, the spread of such easily available weapons – along with the prospect of firearms made on 3D printers – is causing alarm.
To turn a “ghost gun” kit into a functioning firearm requires simple drilling and assembly and can take as little as an hour.
Everything from handguns to assault rifles is available on numerous completely legal websites.
Image: The guns can be bought legally online in the US
In November 2017, Kevin Neal killed five people and injured 18 others in a series of shootings in Tehama County in California.
He used a rifle he had manufactured after being ordered to surrender his guns.
The gunman responsible for the 2013 shooting at a college in Santa Monica in California, which left five people dead, used parts ordered online to build a firearm which was illegal for him to possess.
Image: Ammunition dropped by the Santa Monica gunman in 2013
Debra Fine was shot four times by John Zawahri but survived.
She now campaigns for communities to do more to identify likely offenders and believes the makers of gun kits must take more responsibility.
Image: Debra Fine survived the 2013 Santa Monica shooting
She told Sky News: “I think that any company that’s creating parts for guns and selling guns, and not doing things that are illegal, still would want to make sure – as much as they could – that they end up in the hands of people who aren’t going to do harm with them.”
As with much of the gun debate in the US, there is little prospect of any change in the law.
George Urmston, a licensed firearms manufacturer and strong defender of the Second Amendment right to bear arms, says criminals can obtain a firearm far more quickly and cheaply on the black market than self-manufacturing.
But the controversy over “ghost guns” is unwelcome.
Image: George Urmston said criminals buying guns on the black market more quickly
He said: “They can be a useful tool to give people knowledge and new respect for firearms and their mechanics and how they work.
“If kept in its original context, they can be good, what happens in some cases is you have criminals who take the freedoms that the rest of us Americans enjoy and twist them around.
“That’s always a negative.”
