The rise of 'ghost guns' is the fastest growing gun safety problem in our country, as four recent shootings involved a 'ghost gun.' David Pucino, deputy chief counsel at Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, joins Cheddar News to discuss. 

Cheddar's News Wrap

The Rise of 'Ghost Guns' in the U.S.

Welcome back to cheddar news wrap ghost guns. If you don't know what they are, you need to know they're a serious issue. And the rise of ghost guns is the fastest growing gun problem in our country. As four recent shootings involved, you guessed it? A ghost gun. In fact, the report by every town research reveals that more than 1300 ghost guns connected to criminal activity were possessed, made or sold by people banned from buying or owning firearms, including felons, sex offenders and domestic abusers joining me. Now to discuss is David Casino Deputy Chief Counsel Giffords Law Center to prevent gun violence. So what is a ghost gun? First off, and why is it becoming such a big problem? The ghost guns simply a gun that doesn't have a serial number. Um, the reason it doesn't have a serial number typically is because it was manufactured by a private individual as opposed to buy a license manufacturer importer. Um, and as a result because it doesn't have a serial number, it cannot be used in the law enforcement process could have called tracing. Uh, so law enforcement to recover a firearm from a crime scene. Um, they'll run the serial number on the gun in order to figure out the first retail purchaser. There's no serial number. It's untraceable. So there are two types of ghost guns from what I understand. What's the difference between them and which one is the most popular right now, the most common ghost gun that we're seeing are made from unfinished parts. So a company will create all the parts you need to make a gun, but we'll leave some intentionally unfinished. And they do that because that, um, if they do that, the federal government doesn't consider the part to be a firearm. Um, so they're able to sell these things while evading the regulations that normally apply to firearms. Things like background checks, record keeping requirements, of course, serial numbers. Um, and so the folks are able to obtain these often in large quantities and from the streets with them. Um, so that's the type of ghost that we're seeing a lot. You can also make a ghost gun using a three d printer, um, that used to be a process that produced a gun that wasn't very reliable. Um, in recent years, those have become much more dangerous, much more reliable, much more powerful, but still a much smaller part of the, of the ghost gun problems. We're seeing it here in the states, experts are saying ghost guns can get into more of an out of hand problem if lawmakers don't act, what kind of action can lawmakers make and what action should they make Right now, the most important thing is for the federal government to close the loophole that's allowed for these ghost gun parts to be sold and regulated. Um, the administration has initiated a rulemaking that would change the definition of firearm under federal law. So would account for these parts that are sold really for only that single purpose of being made into firearms. And by acknowledging that reality, it would apply the background check requirements that we could keep the requirements and the serial number requirements to these parts. Um, more importantly that that's still, it would make it more difficult for trackers, traffickers to source these parts and therefore to use them before the streets of weapons. So that's really the most important thing. Um, the administration, as I said, has initiated action there, but there's really been a delay waiting since august for the school to go into effect. And as you've, you've noted, there have been a number of shootings using ghost consents then. So we really need that federal rule to go into effect. Can you tell me more about these ghost guns that come in a kit that you, it's kind of a do it yourself ghost gun where there, where do they come from? And how are they so popular? Who can buy them? Uh, so taking that last question first, anyone can buy them. There's no regulation of these parts at all and Children readily um, have have Canon do sign online and and buy them if you have, um, a credit card, you can buy them online. And even if you don't, you can buy them from a gun show where folks will set up at a gun show and sell these parts really with no regulation, no checks whatsoever. Um, and they have readily been sold to Children. Um, these parts are able to be turned into a fully functional firearm and not very much time by some estimates? It can be an hour? And if you get to be really good at it as traffickers, of course get to do doing it over and over that time to get down to half an hour and 15 minutes. So you can build your own gun in an hour from a kit that you buy online, Right? That's what you said. That's right. Yeah. I mean, the amount of time that it's gonna take to put the firearm together from logging on, you know, you've got the shipment time, but it's, it's really a very small window of time in order to get actually a fully functioning firearm. All right, so my next question is new york's ghost gun regulations went into effect this fall after legislators cited a 479% increase in ghost gun seizures in the state over the last three years. So what other states have taken legislative action against ghost guns? A number of states have taken legislative action and most recently, Maryland and Washington legislatures both passed bills to ban ghost guns. Uh, those state level interventions are hugely important. But part of the problem is that gun traffickers simply go one state over once the state passes gun laws and we've seen that happen. Um, so in order to have a comprehensive solution to the problem, we really need the federal government to act. My last question really quick, how is this legal? What kind of loophole is the, are these ghost guns getting through and how can parents perhaps get involved and make sure their kids aren't buying this kind of stuff online? Uh, well, the, the loophole is based on the way the federal government has defined firearm and it really is, I think an oversight. It was a mistake in doing so, um, really an arbitrary decision that I think they're finally going to be correcting, although it really is, is taking much longer than, than I think most of us in the activist community hoped that it would, um, in terms of what parents can do, it's, it's a real problem because there aren't, um, any kind of restrictions that would block Children from doing it. So it's a matter of monitoring your Children's activities and that's, that's really going to be the key way to stop from up until the point where the federal government acts and solves the problem. This is insane, David. Alright. David, Casino deputy chief counsel at Giffords Law Center. David, thank you so much for being on the show.