President Biden on Monday announced that the Justice Department issued its long-awaited final rule to rein in the proliferation of «ghost guns,» making it …
President Biden on Monday announced that the Justice Department issued its long-awaited final rule to rein in the proliferation of «ghost guns,» making it illegal for a business to manufacture firearms without serial numbers. Ghost guns are unserialized, privately-made firearms that law enforcement are increasingly recovering at crime scenes in cities across the nation, the White House said Monday. Last year alone, there were approximately 20,000 suspected ghost guns reported to ATF has having been recovered by law enforcement in criminal investigations— which the White House said is a «ten-fold increase» from 2016. «Because ghost guns lack the serial numbers marked on other firearms, law enforcement has an exceedingly difficult time tracing a ghost gun found at a crime scene back to an individual purchase,» the White House said. Biden formally unveiled the rule from the White House Rose Garden Monday afternoon, alongside Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. «Today, the United States Department of Justice is making it illegal for a business to manufacture on of these without a serial number,» Biden said, picking up a model ghost gun and showing the audience. «These guns are weapons of choice for many criminals.» The president said his administration is «going to do everything we can deprive them of that choice.» «Look, this should be just a start,» the president said, adding that the U.S. needs to «repeal the liability» shielding gun manufacturers and «finally hold them accountable for false advertising and many other things.» The rule bans the business of manufacturing the most accessible ghost guns, such as unserialized «buy build shoot» kits that individuals can buy online or at a store without a background check and can readily assemble into a working firearm in as little as 30 minutes with equipment they have at home. The rule clarifies that these kits qualify as «firearms» under the Gun Control Act, and that commercial manufacturers of such kits must therefore become licensed and include serial numbers on the kits’ frame or receiver, and commercial sellers of these kits must become federally licensed and run background checks prior to a sale – just like they have to do with other commercially-made firearms. The White House said the rule will also help turn some ghost guns already in circulation into serialized firearms. Under the new rule, the Justice Department is requiring federally licensed dealers and gunsmiths taking any unserialized firearm into inventory to serialize that weapon. «For example, if an individual builds a firearm at home and then sells it to a pawn broker or another federally licensed dealer, that dealer must put a serial number on the weapon before selling it to a customer,» the White House said, adding that the requirement «will apply regardless of how the firearm was made, meaning it includes ghost guns made from individual parts, kits, or by 3D-printers.» Biden warned Monday that «if you commit a crime, the ghost can expect a federal prosecution—not just state.
