Philadelphia city leaders file lawsuit against 2 ghost gun manufacturers
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The city of Philadelphia is taking new action to slow and one day end all the gun violence. It's now filing a lawsuit against two manufacturers of ghost guns.
Police say the use of ghost guns has exploded over the years and now accounts for about 10% of all the guns used in crimes in Philadelphia.
Now, the city is now going after the maker of some of those guns. The city filed a 60-page lawsuit against Nevada-based company Polymer80 and Pennsylvania-based company JSD Supply.
The city says these companies are shipping gun parts to customers who can assemble firearms at home but aren't doing any background checks to make sure those customers can legally own a gun.
Ghost guns have no serial number and are virtually untraceable.
Police confirmed Wednesday that the 40-year-old suspect arrested for the deadly mass shooting in Kingsessing on Monday was carrying two ghost guns.
The city is seeking compensation and an injunction to stop the companies from selling ghost guns to people in Philly.
"Polymer80 and JSD Supply are focused on a competitive advantage which is that they don't follow the gun laws that all the responsible gun dealers do follow. They don't conduct background checks before they sell all their products, which is what a responsible gun dealer do and what is required by law," David Pucino, Deputy Chief Counsel of Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence said. "So when they're making a sale, they don't know who the purchaser is, they don't know if this person has a history of felonies, could be at risk of suicide, could be a child, could be a gun trafficker. They have no idea because it doesn't matter to them, what matters to them is making the sale. What matters to them is the bottom line. And that's not morally wrong, it's a violation of Pennsylvania law."
CBS News Philadelphia reached out to both companies for comment. JSD Supply had no comment.
