Biden Goes After ‘Ghost Guns,’ Nominates New ATF Director
How about the ATF and DOJ get back all those guns lost during Operation Fast & Furious?
The Democrats love trying the same ideas over and over despite getting the same result.
They have done that once again concerning guns. Let’s go after the physical object and not the people committing the crimes.
A ghost gun is privately made and does not have serial numbers making it untraceable. The DOJ asked the Federal Register to implement the “Frame or Receiver” Final Rule, which would change the definition of a firearm and include the ghost gun:
Today, the Department of Justice announced that it has submitted to the Federal Register the “Frame or Receiver” Final Rule, which modernizes the definition of a firearm. Once implemented, this rule will clarify that parts kits that are readily convertible to firearms are subject to the same regulations as traditional firearms. These regulatory updates will help curb the proliferation of “ghost guns,” which are often assembled from kits, do not contain serial numbers, and are sold without background checks, making them difficult to trace and easy to acquire by criminals.
Some of the changes include:
- To help keep guns from being sold to convicted felons and other prohibited purchasers, the rule makes clear that retailers must run background checks before selling kits that contain the parts necessary for someone to readily make a gun.
- To help law enforcement trace guns used in a crime, the rule modernizes the definition of frame or receiver, clarifying what must be marked with a serial number – including in easy-to-build firearm kits.
- To help reduce the number of unmarked and hard-to-trace “ghost guns,” the rule establishes requirements for federally licensed firearms dealers and gunsmiths to have a serial number added to 3D printed guns or other un-serialized firearms they take into inventory.
- To better support tracing efforts, the rule requires federal firearms licensees, including gun retailers, to retain records for the length of time they are licensed, thereby expanding records retention beyond the prior requirement of 20 years. Over the past decade, ATF has been unable to trace thousands of firearms – many reportedly used in homicides or other violent crimes – because the records had already been destroyed. These records will continue to belong to, and be maintained by, federal firearms licensees while they are in business.
Biden used many of the left’s favorite buzzwords and lies when it comes to guns. Apparently, criminals prefer to use ghost guns more than any other gun, gun manufacturers have excellent immunity, and Congress needs to pass universal background checks.
I Googled “ghost guns used in crimes.” I’m seeing articles state that there is a rise in criminals using these so-called guns, but nothing that says these are the preferred guns.
I’d like to see Biden’s proof.
Biden also repeated his beloved lie that gun manufacturers have immunity. Stephen Gutowski explained in April 2021:
“People don’t realize the only industry in America, a billion-dollar industry, that can’t be sued, that are exempt from being sued, are gun manufacturers,” Biden said. “This is the only outfit that is exempt from being sued.”
That claim is also false. Gun manufacturers can be sued and sometimes are sued over claims of negligence. Remington settled a lawsuit over an alleged design flaw with the trigger on its popular Model 700 rifle, and Sig Sauer has been sued multiple times over an alleged safety defect with its P320 handgun. The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which Biden hopes to repeal, provides immunity to the industry over lawsuits stemming from the criminal misuse of guns by third parties.
Even the limited immunity granted to the gun industry is not unique. Numerous other industries benefit from protections against lawsuits that do not implicate willful misconduct on the part of the company. Pharmaceutical companies developing COVID-19 vaccines have immunity from lawsuits over side-effects caused by the life-saving drugs under the 2005 Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act. The same immunity extends to employers who require vaccinations for employment, according to CNBC.
Listen to these soundbites. The man has no idea what he is talking about. I wonder what kind of notes he had in front of him.
BIDEN: "If you commit a crime with a ghost gun, expect federal prosecution."
Were they not prosecuting criminals before? pic.twitter.com/v5iV0YwQ6P
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 11, 2022
Why is he not cracking down on gun trafficking across the border? pic.twitter.com/WD6ilgJ4Ve
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 11, 2022
Now let’s talk about Biden’s pick for ATF director. His first choice, David Chipman, never made it through because four senators would have voted no: Angus King (I-ME), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), and Jon Tester (D-MT).
Former prosecutor and Ohio Attorney General candidate Steve Dettelbach will have to get their votes in order to lead the ATF.
Gitowski wrote at The Reload:
Dettelbach spent several decades as a prosecutor. He was unanimously confirmed to be a United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio in 2009. However, his career took a political turn after leaving the office in 2016. Two years later, he ran for Ohio Attorney General as a Democrat.
Dettelbach established his support for gun-control proposals from universal background checks to an “assault weapons” ban during the race while speaking with a local NPR affiliate. Dettelbach lost to Republican Dave Yost by about four points.
In 2021, Dettelbach attempted to get his old job back but failed in part due to opposition from civil-rights leaders. Samaria Rice, whose son Tamir was killed by Cleveland Police in 2014 when they mistook his toy gun for a real one, complained to Senator Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio) after he told her he’d recommended Dettelbach to President Biden. “The community deserves a fair process,” not a “white, political insider” pick, she told Cleveland.com at the time. Dettelbach was not nominated for a second stint after that.
His run as a Democrat and public support for new gun restrictions will likely complicate his path to confirmation. Gun-rights groups and the firearms industry alike are already criticizing Biden’s pick of Dettelbach as a non-starter. The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), an industry trade group, said it wants a permanent director. However, it said it can only support a director who “will not politicize the ATF to advance a partisan gun control agenda.”
If he does get confirmed let’s hope we don’t have another Operation Fast & Furious.
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Comments
Ghost guns are not untraceable. Good lord, police understood this before 3D printing was invented and before serial number were even required. Fingerprints, ballistic evidence, witnesses, DNA, etc., hello is this thing on? Does a gun with a scratched off serial number = get away with murder automatically card? Conversely, a gun with a serial number does not mean every crime with that gun is solvable.
“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the serial number proves this gun was fired by its owner.”
Oh OK.
How do police solve homicides with a knife?
Personally I have zero interest in printing out my own firearm, I have complete interest in BS laws that do nothing but push the 2nd amendment farther away from us. What’s next? Tyrants never stop until they are forced to.
Dems are afraid of ghost bullets, the way they have been acting, they really should be afraid,
They are afraid. Except when it come to sending you or YOUR kids to get killed or have limbs blown off half way around the world. And when that happens they make sick jokes to college kids like Jawn Kerry (“finish school or you’ll get stuck in Iraq”)
But on Jan 6 they cowered behind their desks. It’s called consciousness of guilt.
Ghost gun is just a marketing term like assault rifle made up by the Democrats to scare people who don’t like or know anything about guns. Unserialized gun doesn’t sound like a big deal but a ghost gun, who knows what ghost gun might be capable of.
But that would require like work and stuff….there’s too much diversity training to be done to have time for that.
It’s official. Democrats will no longer walk ghost guns across the border for Mexican Cartels. Only legally purchased, serialized weapons will be sent across.
In general, no. What federal crime has the person committed?
My question of Biden is the opposite: Unless there’s some other provision not listed in the press release, how will these rules allow federal prosecution of crimes committed with unmarked guns? I don’t see anything in there making it a crime to possess an unmarked firearm, or to commit a crime with one. All I see is one requiring kits to have serial numbers, and one requiring dealers and gunsmiths to add numbers to any unmarked firearms they might happen to purchase. How do either of those provisions help the feds do what Biden threatened?
If past performance predicts future results….. The Feds will watch closely (ex.. occasionally inquire about if any progress is being made) as the local cops process crime scenes, check the whereabouts of the “usual suspects”, process whatever evidence is collected, etc…. and if a gun is found, and eventually a suspect, the Feds will jump in to see if there is some way they can hijack the case (ie. “ghost gun”, interstate movement of the gun or perp, etc) and will prosecute the case, if….. it is a dead-bang winner for them.
That’s what Joe is selling…..
You make an excellent point, Milhouse. So the maker of a (so-called) “ghost gun” includes a VIN like stamp plate “to be affixed to the firearm component” at a certain point in the process.
1) Who is to say that the person putting the “ghost gun” together actually uses the process in the order the manufacturer specifies?
2) Who is to say that the person putting together the “ghost gun” even bothers to affix said VINSN at the point where the manufacturer specifies?
3) And this is potentially a bigger issue, under the proposed rule(s), even a solid block of aluminum is a “ghost gun”. Will they require *ALL* blocks of metal to be stamped with a serial number?
3a) If they do, then how will they account for the smelting, milling, drilling, etc. processes that will destroy said stamped part (that could eventually wind up as a widget and not a firearm component)?
This is, like 99.995% of everything the BATF does, just smoke, mirrors, and bullshit.
Yep, sounds about right. The politicians demanding these rules have no clue how things work, so the bureaucrats make the rules they demand, and then leave it to the ATF to try to enforce them.
They still cannot figure out what an “assault rifle” is.
Not sure why the down votes on your comment Millhouse.
But regarding your question of “how will these rules allow federal prosecution?” This would make so called “ghost guns” a federally regulation weapon similar to what a fully automatic weapon is today. Am I missing something?
He has stalkers that get up in their feels and serially stalk him for DVs. We can argue, even heatedly at times, but let’s not become loony campus leftists.
Not according to the press release. Have you seen something else that suggests they’ll do that?
My comparison to a full auto wasn’t a very good one.
If the AFT calls private manufacturing of a non-serialized weapon illegal, then they give themselves the authority to prosecute violators.
I think that is a better way of saying what I am thinking. My point is that if it’s done thru the AFT, it becomes a federal issue.
The ATF has way too much power. Crazy that a bunch of un-elected’s can write a letter to “help interpret the NFA” and the next thing you know, it’s the new law.
If those fully automatic weapons were easier to make at home the control issue would be just as difficult for them. In fact, they sort of are. Remember, in that shooting in Sacramento a week or so back, one of the shooters had a handgun that was modified to shoot full-auto. That one had a manufactured part to do it, but someone with knowledge of the workings, steady hands, and a good file can do the same (depending on the particular gun).
Here’s what they are talking about ( read the “proposed” definition now of “gunsmith”
They are wanting basically an FFL for “everything” which in turn makes every transaction a “dealer buy” ( even with individuals thus universal background checks)
That’s what they are talking about
It is more about finding ways to prosecute and revoke licenses from FFLs than anything. Dems know this won’t stop crime. It may make a retailer stumble. One less retailer/FFL is good in their eyes.
And since they know it won’t stop crime then they are lying about their motivation for the new rules.
Seems a sensible set of policies.
Mute button for stupid trolls, please.
Ever hear of a zip gun?
“zip gun
[ˈzip ˌɡən]
NOUN
NORTH AMERICAN
informal
a cheap homemade or makeshift gun:
‘I made the zip gun in class out of a toy airplane launcher'”
All you really need is a plumbing supply store and a mouse trap for the firing pin mechanism. Then some wood to hold it all together. Actually, I don’t even believe you need to live in a society so sophisticated as to have plumbing supply stores.
I saw some pretty impressive examples in Africa. And then there was Darra in Pakistan.
https://www.amusingplanet.com/2014/09/darra-adam-khel-village-of-illegal-gun.html
A few basic hand tools and enough time and you too can make your own AK.
“…The gunsmiths of Darra Adam Khel posses the skills to produce replicas of almost any arms on the market, from anti-aircraft guns to small concealable pen-guns.
‘There is nothing we cannot copy,” an arms trader once boasted to BBC. “You bring us a Stinger missile and we will make you an imitation that would be difficult to tell apart from the original.’…”
In WWII we used to drop these things behind Nazi and Japanese lines.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FP-45_Liberator
They were cheap nasty pieces of crap that I’m told kicked like mules. And why would they? Actual 1911A1s Intended to withstand compat weighed nearly 2 and a half bounds. Liberators weighed 16 ounces. And they wouldn’t last long. But that was OK because the idea was you killed a Nazi or Imperial Japanese soldier, took their weapons, and went on to bigger and better things.
You had to be pretty effing desperate to try and sneak up and an axis soldier with one to those things.
But people did, they were just that desperate, and God love ’em for making the effot.
I haven’t thought about zip guns for a long time. They would make great booby traps What about PVC pipe based cannons, while most are toys, they could also be effective if rioters were trying to storm a home.
Does this mean that PVC cannons will soon be called ghost cannons and need to be regulated? Will all nails now have to have engraved serial numbers?
Maybe for people who reside in a Nation where the Govt views the public as subjects. In the US we are Citizens with individual rights protected, in the first instance, by our Constitution.
Fitting – a focus on ghost guns by what IMO seems to be a ghost of a President. I am a bit more concerned about the millions of illegals who aren’t ghosts, despite the administration dumping them all over the country at night.
Two things you should keep in mind about ghost guns.
First: serial numbers on guns are about as useful as face masks on six-year-olds. The goob insists they are invaluable in solving crimes. They are lying to you.*
When does a serial number help solve a crime? When the goob doesn’t have the perp, but the goob does have the gun, and the person who committed the crime was the legal owner of the gun as traceable through gun-store paperwork.
First off, the first two conditions just by themselves — have the gun but not the perp — are extremely rare to begin with. Now comes the even harder stuff: was the gun stolen (dead end)? Was it privately and entirely legally sold to another owner (dead end, unless the seller kept records)? Or was the crime committed by the first owner of the gun who bought it from a licensed gun store, or by the last owner of a chain of owners, every one of whom sold it to and bought it from a licensed gun store? If the latter — ding, ding, ding! — the serial number has just solved a crime.
And for all these prerequisites to fall neatly into place to get here is incredibly improbable. Therefore, you are about as likely to solve a crime committed with a ghost gun with no serial markings at all than you are if it has all its serial markings.
Second: when you read about the “increase in the number of crimes reported committed with ghost guns” be aware tht many urban PDs are lying about these too. Ooh, look, here’s a crime gun we found that clearly came out of the Smith & Wesson factory but somebody drilled the serial number off. Well, it has no serial number, so count it as a ghost gun. Yup, they’re doing that.
*
*The goob lies about the “invaluable advantages” of unproven ideas it pulls out of its ass all the time.
Canada promised registering guns with a new $2M registry would solve crimes. It cost a THOUSAND TIMES more than promised ($20B), and was never successful at solving a single actual crime – except for the brand new crime of “failure to register,“ an entirely artificial “crime“ existing ONLY because the government had created a registry! They finally dismantled it.
New York and Maryland established “ballistic fingerprint” registries of new guns prior to sale to “solve crimes.” After years of operation, both discontinued their efforts because they were entirely worthless in solving crimes. In fact, by polluting their database of “guns connected to crime” to include “every gun ever made and sold in this state,” they had made it harder and take longer to solve crimes.
California required forms and licenses to buy ammunition for about a decade. They discontinued it because it showed zero crime-fighting results. Two decades later, they reinstituted it as a “new idea,” because learning from history is rayciss.
All very good points.
$20B is 10,000 times $2M. Just saying.
I miswrote. It was $2.7B, not $20B.
Interesting thanks, as per Milhouse some good points
Yep, and you said this, but if you are going to commit a crime, file off the easily visible serial number and that avenue becomes a dead end. It’s not much harder than taking your license plate off to commit a vehicular crime.
You can, of course, file off the serial number from a home made gun kit of parts, too.
Actually most serial numbers are stamped (except on polymer firearms). If you don’t drill them deep, the deformations can be raised by an acid treatment. Labs do this all the time, but it doesn’t improve the result that the number usually leads nowhere.
Actually ( excluding the polymer as you state), if not totally drilled through, I can read them with either an X-ray or phased-array UT. I do it all the time getting serial and part numbers off of corroded things as well as flaw detection.
ESPECIALLY if it was heat treated after the stamping.
Lasers are also easy as they have a defined HAZ (heat affected zone) that reads like a neon sign- BUT looses definition as depth increases so this one can be obscured depending on the laser and size of the cut.
“Ghost Guns” numbers included in this justification are those that had their serial number ground off… which is illegal anyway. BATF is already illegally scanning in 4473 forms into a database. The Government is so far past “little lies” now… they can and will do whatever they can get away with … and that is about everything. In Japan the saying is “the exposed nail gets hammered”… here … put in solitary or shot.
The next step is what is seen in South Africa… once you own a firearm.. you have 100% liability…. if stolen… you are responsible for what happens to it. Here in the US that applies to nuclear power plants… Soon our right to keep and bear will carry the burden of absolute liability while the government has none.
Have we traced the serial numbers on the billion or so dollars of weapons Slow Joe left the terrorists in Afghanistan?
Didn’t think so.
Hell, the ATF couldn’t even track the guns it deliberately trafficked to the Mexican cartels for the express purported purpose of being able to track them! (Which is why that purported purpose was obviously not the real purpose.)
Or… they mis-identify a firearm in a drug bust and go after someone with a firearm with the same serial number but from a different manufacturer. Now…. how would I know that?
The problem with ghost guns is that if they’re allowed to become common and no disaster results, then people will start asking why we ever needed serial numbers on guns in t he first place. Why we subjected people to the considerable effort and expense to create a system that has probably never actually solved any actual crime, ever, let alone prevented one. And that will be a difficult question to answer. So best crack down on the ghost guns and head off the questions.
Further… how many 4473’s kept after 20 years were successfully used to solve a crime?
That question doesn’t have an obvious answer. The average “time to crime” of a firearm (from first sale) is over 11 years, according to the BATF.
I guess Biden just likes getting his butt kicked in court.
Home made guns are perfectly legal.
You just cannot transfer them.
Anybody with a hand-drill can make one, and even that is not absolute.
They are NOW. If Democrats gets their way, that will change.
I’m sure you meant this with one caveat. You can indeed transfer them to anyone you want but you have to apply to the ATF for a serial number which can be about anything you want. This is not hard to do.
That is great
My home-spun firearms are then no longer destined for destruction, and I can legally pass them to the offspring.
Thanks!
Mark
Anyone care to guess the accuracy of the form 4473 information after 20 years?
“It depends, but probably no accuracy at all” is my answer. If the gun in question has ever changed hands without a licensed dealer involved to process another 4473, than the old 4473 is more than likely useless. Only if the original purchaser from 20 years ago kept the gun will the information be sort of accurate. There’s no requirement to update 4473’s if you move, for instance.
But what about Biden’s “ghost brain”?
It is an old NRA line of argument, but in reality-guns don’t kill people-only people who have decided to commit murder kill people
More empty politicians making empty promises to convince the gullible they are taking decisive action. In reality this will have little to no impact. The problem will always be with the people who want to use guns to harm others or steal what they have.
Check any online gun site and you will see that complete firearms and certain components are required to be delivered to the purchaser’s local gun dealer under current federal laws. This includes receivers—the part of the AR that includes firing mechanism. Other parts like grips, trigger assemblies, stocks, can be shipped directly to the buyer. All the desecrated sock puppet, Biden, and his handlers are accomplishing is a crackdown on the entire gun parts market for law-abiding citizens. The Democrat Marxist constituents in the criminal class will be, as usual, totally unaffected.
This is after a quick read through the actual proposals ( but need some time to fully digest) and the fact that I have been a gun designer, smith, gunmaker and FFL holder ( and will be soon again).
There is a lot of “sinister” here but in a nutshell..
First- it has ALWAYS been law that if a FFL accepts and sells a PMF (personally made firearm) that a serial number must be attached. The fact they are asking for this again is suspicious.
Second- the rule doesn’t specifically and exactly define a “kit” nor does it define “readily assembled ( or any other similar language)- so “technically” this could apply to individual parts ( such as a bolt carrier group) as requiring an FFL to sell.
Third- the definition of receiver and fire control group. The way they are twisting this- anything is a regulated receiver.
Fourth- 80% ( or any number) receiver ( anything more than a billet but less than a functional receiver ready to accept parts) doesn’t exist. (Its a made up term). This is why the ATF requires a sample to determine where a “semi finished” receiver (80%) ends and a functional receiver begins. The danger of this is that “anything” can be called a receiver now.
Fifth- Any mechanical engineer, millwright, mechanic, machinist or CAD operator can clone anything ( as they have done for decades long before this was even known to the internet generation- “ghost guns” have been made overseas for decades and funneled to criminals. I myself have been on ops back in the day on this and that was decades ago and old even then). That’s where a lot of insurgents got AK’s and M-16s etc. ( they didn’t buy them from the govt or steal them)
I now know what the truth is not- need to study this to see what they are trying to actually do. ( like everything else- lot of detail reading)
Hopefully more to come
Broadly speaking the roadblock for these proposed regulation changes is that Congress has already provided the definitions in statute that these proposed regulations seek to modify. If the admin wants to make changes to the definitions, which is mostly what is being proposed, then they can go to Congress, make their case, build support and get it passed. The problem is Congress has no appetite to do so, especially in a midterm election year.
IMO, this is a return to the old gun grabber playbook. Ignore Congress, use rulemaking authority to chill the activities, get shut down in CT, blame the Judiciary, go to Congress, get rejected, blame 2nd amendment supporters, fundraise, hype up any future crime as stemming from the failure of Congress to act, fundraise again. All this just to attempt to create a wedge issue to convince suburban chardonnay sipping women to vote d/prog. Crass political theater at it’s finest.
I am not worried about the kind of guns the criminals have, I am worried about the criminals that have guns.
Look for another lawsuit blocking this just like the one that was filed to stop the ATF from finalizing the “rule” about bump stocks that had the force of law.
This is nothing but more of the same. Can’t get something through the Congress then have one of the government agencies do it with a rule that end runs the Constitution. Enough of that.
If I ever to make guns, I’d use these serial numbers”
17740419
17760704
17811019
17870917
17911215
18360223
18360421