Biden Administration expected to crack down on 'ghost guns'
Biden administration to tackle 'ghost guns'
President Biden is expected to hand down new rules for "ghost guns" - which are firearms privately made without serial numbers. FOX 13's Jordan Bowen reports.
WASHINGTON D.C. - This week, the Biden Administration is expected to hand down a rule cracking down on ghost guns, which are guns manufactured privately without serial numbers.
Ghost guns are nothing new, but their growing prevalence stands out. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, law enforcement recovered more than 24,000 ghost guns between 2016 and 2020.
"There is an epidemic of ghost guns now," U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said during a news conference Sunday in Manhattan.
In 2017, a gunman killed his wife and a student at an elementary school in Northern California before turning the gun on himself. The gun used was a ghost gun authorities say he made on his own after being prohibited from owning firearms. In 2019, a teenager used a homemade gun to fatally shoot two of his classmates at a school in suburban Los Angeles.
"There is no serial number, there's no background check, and you can order them online, no questions asked," Schumer stated.
Ghosts guns are guns manufactured privately and are made by putting together unfinished parts of a gun to make an actual firearm. The gun parts being bought typically don't have serial numbers which make ghost guns untraceable. Currently, you can legally buy gun parts online to make a so-called "ghost gun" without having to undergo a background check.
"Today I am calling on the administration to go all after ghost guns by putting out regulations that will stop them," Schumer explained.
READ Florida man with guns, drugs, baby alligator in truck arrested by deputies
According to a report by the Associated Press Sunday, the Biden Administration is expected to hand down a rule cracking down on ghost guns by as early as Monday. The rule is expected to change the current definition of a firearm under federal law to include unfinished parts, like the frame of a handgun or the receiver of a long gun.
The rule could also make it so manufacturers and dealers who sell ghost gun parts be required to be licensed by the federal government and require federally licensed firearms dealers to add a serial number to any unserialized guns they plan to sell.
"A gun is a firearm. It has to be sold by a dealer. But the pieces are not a firearm and don't have to be sold by the dealer. That's what we need to change," Schumer said.