News agencies in Pennsylvania are reporting on the arrest of four Philadelphia men in connection with the alleged “illegal carrying, buying and selling” of so-called “ghost guns, firearms produced from kits with no serial numbers or transfers involving background checks.
Recently, according to Al Dia News, Congressmen Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) and Brad Schneider (D-IL) “unveiled legislation to close the ‘ghost guns loophole’ that is currently gripping Philadelphia and other metropolitan cities across the nation.”
And Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro declared in a tweet “Ghost guns are quickly becoming the weapon of choice for criminals.”
WPVI News in Philadelphia quoted Shapiro stating, “Ghost guns are fueling the gun violence epidemic that takes the lives of Pennsylvanians every single day. Once these DIY homemade gun kits are in the wrong hands, in mere hours they become untraceable, fully operational firearms causing so much senseless violence.”
But is this just another way of distracting public attention from allegations that gun control policies have failed and will continue to fail because criminals don’t obey existing gun laws, and they won’t obey any new ones?
Ammoland News recently looked at the problem, pointing to five recent cases involving felons with firearms. And The Federalist ran a story that offered nine reasons why new gun control measures introduced by Democrats are destined to fail. Author Ryan Cleckner listed them:
- Demands for New Gun Control Are an Admission That Gun Control Doesn’t Work
- Gun Dealers Already Conduct Background Checks
- There Is No ‘Gun-Show Loophole’
- There Is No ‘Online Gun Sales Loophole’
- Universal Background Checks Won’t Stop Criminals from Getting Guns
- Background Checks Won’t Stop Mass Shootings
- In-State Commerce Is a State Issue
- Universal Background Checks Are Too Burdensome
- Universal Background Checks Create a De Facto Federal Gun Registry
What the “ghost gun” narrative does, perhaps unintentionally, is acknowledge the fact that creative criminals will find ways around any gun control scheme. Adopting laws making it harder for law-abiding citizens to purchase and own firearms will not prevent criminals from getting guns.
Case in point; KIRO in Seattle, the local CBS affiliate, is reporting how Seattle police have arrested a 19-year-old Lakewood resident and recovered an AK-style pistol “in connection with a shootout last May.”
According to the report, the suspect was arrested on a warrant for failure to appear in court. When he was taken into custody, officers found the gun and ammunition. However, the suspect is a convicted felon and cannot legally own or possess firearms, but that law obviously failed, too.
The legislation sponsored by Espaillat and Schneider would amend federal law to include kits in the definition of a firearm.
