Ghost guns make up about 8% of all Philadelphia crime guns. What are they?
Police say the UnitedHealthcare's CEO was likely killed with a ghost gun that may have been made with a 3D printer.
Ghost guns do not have serial numbers, making them difficult for law enforcement to trace. Also known as privately-made firearms, ghost guns are often assembled by their owners either from scratch or through a kit that can be purchased online. For most, it's not illegal to have one and they're becoming easier and cheaper to put together.
Over the last decade, the ATF says a growing number of ghost guns have been recovered from crime scenes across the United States. It's a big concern for authorities.
"Sometimes they can use a 3D printer to manufacture the frame or the receiver of the firearm and order other firearm parts online, which aren't regulated and then they can build the gun themselves," Eric DeGree, a Special Agent in Charge with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) said.
DeGree says the vast majority of people assembling a ghost gun are legally allowed to do so, however, the problem occurs when someone makes a gun with criminal intentions.
"Criminals like to make these or get ahold of them because they're also hard to trace because there's no serial number on the frame or the receiver of the firearm," he said.
Police data shows that roughly 6,000 crime guns were recovered in Philadelphia in 2022 and 2023. In both years, roughly 9% of them were ghost guns. So far in 2024, about 5,200 crime guns have been recovered including roughly 400 ghost guns, making up about 7.5%.
In the spring, the city of Philadelphia reached a settlement agreement with two of the largest suppliers of ghost guns under which they agreed to stop selling their products online and in stores in the city for four years and at gun shows for two years. David Pucino, the Legal Director of the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence who filed the lawsuit along with the city of Philadelphia, worked on the case.
"We saw more and more ghost guns on the street, in major cities across the U.S. In some cases, exponential growth in the number of ghost guns that police were recovering so something needed to be done about that," Pucino said.
According to Everytown, a gun safety organization, 15 states have passed ghost gun laws, including New Jersey and Delaware.
Two years ago, the Biden administration rolled out a new measure that sought to ensure ghost guns are subject to the same requirements as commercial firearms sales. The measure was challenged and made its way to the Supreme Court. A decision on whether to uphold the federal ghost gun rule is expected by June next year.