Ghost-Gun Firms Find New Ways to Sell DIY Weapons as U.S. Rule Takes Effect
Makers of easy-to-assemble firearms offer products in pieces after regulation mandates serial numbers, background checks on kits
Sellers of the easy-to-assemble firearms known as ghost guns are finding ways to continue to offer their products online, soon after the Biden administration implemented a rule aimed at regulating their sales.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives rule that went into effect Aug. 24 requires licensed gun manufacturers to add serial numbers to kits that can be quickly assembled into working firearms and for retailers who sell them to conduct background checks on buyers.
Ghost-gun companies have concluded that they can continue operating amid those requirements by selling the parts separately, instead of in a single kit, and leaving purchasers to put the parts together to create a working weapon themselves, people who work in the industry said. Some are offering only some of the needed components for sale.
“If somebody wants to make a firearm at their home without a serial number, they can do it just as easily as they could last week,” said Rob Pincus, a firearms instructor, author and consultant who has built many homemade firearms.
One of the largest ghost-gun makers, Polymer80 Inc., has stopped selling its unserialized “Buy Build Shoot” kits that contain all the parts needed for a ghost gun. However, it still offers on its website most of the parts needed to make homemade guns.
Representatives for the company didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The Nevada company was raided two years ago by the ATF, but no charges have been brought.
Some ghost-gun sellers are still offering the key building block for weapons: the unfinished receiver, a metal or polymer piece that houses the firing mechanism. The companies call them “80% receivers” because buyers need to make modifications for them to be 100% complete.
“We can ship to your door because 80% lower receivers are not considered firearms by the ATF,” a seller called 80 Percent Arms says in a product description.
The company didn’t respond to requests for comment.
President Biden ordered the new restrictions last year to clamp down on ghost guns, which law-enforcement officials say appeal to criminals because all the parts can be bought and assembled without a background check.
Gun-rights advocates say that such concerns are overblown and that homemade firearms are the province of hobbyists.
“This rule will make it harder for criminals and other prohibited persons to obtain untraceable guns,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said when the law went into effect. “It will help reduce the number of untraceable firearms flooding our communities.”
About 20,000 ghost guns were reported to the ATF as having been recovered by law enforcement in criminal investigations in 2021. That is up more than 10 times from the number recovered in 2016.
On Friday, a federal judge in Texas granted a preliminary injunction in favor of a company called Tactical Machining that sells parts used to make homemade guns, which had challenged the new rule in court.
Friday’s ruling applies only to the one company, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor wrote. But he also said that the new rule conflicts with a 1968 law that legally defined a firearm. The judge ordered further briefings by both the company and the government.
Under federal law, the only part of a gun considered a firearm is the receiver. Manufacturers are required to stamp receivers with serial numbers. Anyone buying a serialized receiver must undergo a background check just as with a completed gun. Police use those serial numbers to trace weapons used in murders and other violent crimes.
Gun hobbyists found that if they took a receiver that wasn’t completely finished—and didn’t yet have a serial number—they could finish it in their workshops with tools as simple as a drill press. Companies such as Polymer80 soon started selling kits with unfinished receivers and all the parts to build a complete firearm.
ATF spokesman Erik Longnecker said companies can still offer unfinished receivers if they are sold alone, but they must not be able to be readily completed.
The ATF will evaluate receivers submitted to it and decide whether they are all right to sell, he said. Dealers who violate the regulation could face up to five years in prison.
Under the new rule, the ATF will take into account whether the receivers are being sold alongside guides known as jigs that fit around the receiver and show people where to drill and machine to finish the part.
Polymer80 now lists unfinished receivers for sale on its site, as well as other parts used to make guns, but it no longer offers jigs.
Cody Wilson, an executive at Ghostguns.com, said his website is gearing up to sell jigs without receivers.
“This is going to mean that very little will change,” said Mr. Wilson.
Alex McCourt, assistant professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said that eliminating the ability to buy all the pieces with one online order will likely cut down on the availability of ghost guns.
“I do think it will make a dent,” he said.
Gun-control advocates have also said that any change that makes it more difficult to obtain and build a ghost gun is worthwhile to deter crime.