Lawmaker wants Pennsylvania to crack down on 3D-printed "ghost guns" in 2025
A Pennsylvania lawmaker is hoping to crack down on ghost guns in the new year. Ghost guns — privately-made firearms that do not have serial numbers — are difficult for law enforcement to trace and are increasingly popular among criminals.
Over the last decade, the ATF says a growing number of ghost guns have been recovered from crime scenes across the United States.
"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) told CBS News Philadelphia.
Police data shows that about 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 approximately 400 ghost guns, making up about 7.5%.
DeGree says the vast majority of people assembling a gun are legally allowed to do so, but criminals are keen on getting a hold of them because they're difficult to trace.
According to Everytown, a gun safety organization, 15 states have passed ghost gun laws, including New Jersey and Delaware. In Pennsylvania, there's currently no regulation. Pennsylvania state Rep. Melissa Shusterman, a Democrat from Chester County, is looking to change that when the new session starts in 2025.
"My legislation would treat 3D-printed firearms as actual firearms under the law, so that means one must get a manufacturing license," Shusterman said.
She tried to pass similar legislation last session, but it stalled. Shusterman said it can be difficult to pass any gun laws in Pennsylvania's split legislature, but this time she is asking for bipartisan support.
"I actually have high hopes to get this law passed. It's a very common-sense law. We have 3D printers, and now they're being used to print firearms that are untraceable, so we need to treat the 3D-printed firearms and the firearm parts like we treat any other firearm that people are registering for here in Pennsylvania," she said.
Two years ago, the Biden administration rolled out a new measure to ensure ghost guns are subject to the same requirements as commercial firearms sales. That's in effect for now. The Supreme Court will decide whether to uphold it, with the ruling expected in June.
