Free Republic

California Democrats are pushing legislation to require background checks for gun barrel purchases, effectively taking the “ghost gun” regulatory push to its logical conclusion. The bill, Senate Bill 704, is sponsored by state Sen. Jesse Arreguín (D). SB 704 singles out firearm barrels among the many other parts of firearm, requiring a background check for any replacement barrel or aftermarket barrel upgrade purchase. […] Moreover, SB 704 specifically outlines how the costs of performing background checks for barrels must be handled, making clear that the legislation literally creates “a new crime,” albeit a misdemeanor, in the state California. …

Report Highlights: Federal and state laws allow prosecutors to charge unlicensed civilians with manufacturing, possessing, or transferring 3D-printed firearms. • Unserialized 3D-printed firearms, known as “ghost guns,” are illegal in seven states. • The Undetectable Firearms Act of 1988 and a 2022 ATF rule permit federal prosecution for 3D-printing firearms if certain legal requirements are not met. • Manufacturing 3D-printed firearms is explicitly illegal in Delaware, Hawaii, Rhode Island, and Washington. • Possessing an unregistered, unserialized 3D-printed firearm is prohibited in Connecticut, New York, and Oregon. • Selling or transferring an unserialized 3D-printed firearm is illegal in all 50 states.

NATO moved Friday to enhance its naval presence in the Baltic Sea as Estonia’s navy began patrolling an undersea cable supplying energy from Finland. The move follows the excision of a different cable from the power grid on Christmas Day in what Finnish authorities allege is a case of deliberate, targeted sabotage by Russia, as Breitbart News reported. A ship named as Eagle S is suspected of damaging the Estlink 2 cable and Finnish coast guard crew have boarded the oil tanker and steered it into Finnish waters. The E.U. said the Eagle S was part of “Russia’s shadow fleet”...

Two brothers who kept a “human sacrifice” hit list of cops, judges, politicians, celebrities and “banker scum” were nabbed with an arsenal of homemade bombs and ghost guns in their family’s Queens apartment, prosecutors said Monday. Wannabe anarchists Andrew Hatziagelis, 39, and his 51-year-old brother, Angelo, were hit with a 130-count indictment after cops and federal agents seized a cache of weapons that included “improvised” explosive devices, body armor and a collection of AR-15-style and 9mm ghost guns. The pair also allegedly scribbled “hit list” on a scrap of notebook paper that included a list of potential targets that also...

Yet another reason to disband entire swaths of federal law enforcement: The federal government has a long, proud history of arming people who commit violent crimes. Sometimes it’s intentional as it was during the Obama era Fast and Furious program when the ATF shipped weapons to the Mexican cartels. Sometimes it’s due to basic stupidity and negligence as it was when a BLM ranger left his gun in his car in San Francisco where it was stolen. It was later used to murder Kate Steinle... It seems that parts from a number of their retired duty weapons — firearms that...

The U.S. Supreme Court announced on Friday that oral arguments for its upcoming case involving the government’s ban on so-called “ghost guns” will begin on Oct. 8. It is the lone gun-related challenge on the court’s fall docket. The case, VanDerStok v. Garland, challenges the Department of Justice’s 2022 Final Rule that redefined important legal terms dealing with guns, including “firearm,” “receiver” and “frame,” making the longstanding American tradition of building personal firearms pretty much a thing of the past. Back in April, the court voted 4-3 to consider the challenge. At issue is whether the DOJ and Bureau of...

Though still far behind the number of cases granted for the next term this time last year, the court on Monday added two new cases to its docket for the 2024-2025 term. The justices agreed to weigh in on a challenge to a rule by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives regulating so-called “ghost guns” – firearms without serial numbers that virtually anyone can assemble from parts, often purchased in a kit. Garland v. VanDerStok was one of two cases granted on Monday on a list of orders from the justices’ private conference last week. The dispute over...

President Joe Biden acts as if he's never met a gun control law that he didn't like. Especially not over the last 30 years or so, that's for sure. Unfortunately for him, he's been stymied in pretty much every bit of legislation he's tried since the Assault Weapon Ban in 1994. Sure, there was the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, but as bad as that was, we all know it was a drop in the bucket for what he wanted. The most meaningful thing he's accomplished has been in regard to so-called ghost guns and that was only through executive order--one...

The Supreme Court on Oct. 6 lifted a lower court order blocking the Biden administration’s rule regulating so-called ghost guns that can be assembled at home, allowing the policy to remain in force until Oct. 16. The new order from Justice Samuel Alito came late in the day on Oct. 6 in an emergency application in a case known as Garland v. Blackhawk Manufacturing Group Inc. (court file 23A302). U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland filed the application on behalf of the Biden administration. The lower court order is now administratively stayed until 5 p.m. on Oct. 16. [snip] The government’s...

A couple of years ago, an "80 percent" receiver I purchased refused to accept parts, let alone chamber and fire cartridges, until my son and I drilled and milled it to completion; that's because unfinished firearms are not firearms. For a long time, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) agreed. But, pressured by the Biden administration, the ATF tried to extend firearms regulations to a lot of things that aren't guns but could, with work, become one. Now a federal judge is injecting some sense, ruling in a lawsuit that bureaucrats can't just decide that inert objects...

Today, the City of Philadelphia announced that it has filed a lawsuit against defendants Polymer80, Inc. and JSD Supply, which are among the largest suppliers of ghost guns confiscated in Philadelphia. The City of Philadelphia Law Department filed with co-counsel Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence and the Hausfeld law firm. The lawsuit alleges that the named distributors have perpetuated

A federal judge delivered a blow to the Biden administration’s gun control policy by reversing a federal ban on so-called “ghost guns” and argued that the ATF overstepped its authority. Texas-based United States District Court Judge Reed O’Connor on Friday ruled that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) erred by saying that unfinished gun parts are guns and can, therefore, be regulated. His ruling said that parts aren’t guns under federal law. “This case presents the question of whether the federal government may lawfully regulate partially manufactured firearm components, related firearm products, and other tools and materials...

Ghost guns are coming under fire from gun-control advocates. But why are these weapons so difficult to trace? And can anything be done to keep them from getting into the wrong hands? (snip) Officials told him the 17-year-old suspect used a ghost gun, which is a privately made firearm that is unregistered and untraceable. Nowadays, anyone with access to the internet can buy the parts needed to make a gun without a background check. Tutorials online explain how to assemble the pieces into a fully functioning firearm with just basic tools in less than an hour. "I was just in...

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden celebrated the adoption of a federal rule in August that cracked down on the online sale of untraceable components for weapons known as ghost guns as a major step in stemming gun violence. But the rule has done little to stop the sale of key parts used to make deadly homemade firearms, according to officials and gun control groups. The rule, among the most significant executive actions Biden has taken on a core campaign promise, clarified the definition of a firearm under federal law to better regulate modern semi-automatic weapons. That in turn paved the...

An upstate New York sheriff is irked that people around the US are 3D printing firearms to turn into gun buyback programs for cold, hard cash. "I know in Utica, New York, Houston, Texas, and Spartanburg, South Carolina that 3D printed guns were submitted to the gun buyback program," Robert Swenszkowski, the sheriff of New York's Oneida County and, strangely, a professor at Utica University, told Spectrum News 1. He appeared to be referring to several stories that emerged this summer, in which people in Texas, South Carolina and New York did indeed sell back guns they 3D printed at...

With just days remaining until new federal rules will effectively ban so-called ghost guns on Aug. 24, many companies are scrambling to sell parts needed to make the largely untraceable firearms — and gun enthusiasts continue to build them. In April, President Joe Biden announced new regulations that will treat ghost guns — which can be made from parts bought online or with 3D printers — like any other firearms sold in the U.S. Online, many websites that sell ghost gun parts have posted countdowns to the date the rule takes effect and have posted information for enthusiasts who want...

John Crump at Ammoland reports thatGun Owners of America (GOA), Bridge City Ordinance, and North Dakota resident Eliezer Jimenez have sued the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) over its new rule on unfinished frames and receivers.After Joe Biden became president, he tasked the ATF to come up with new regulations surrounding privately manufactured firearms (PMF) and pistol stabilizing devices. Biden’s ATF unveiled new rules for a public comment period. Gun owners flooded the comments, but the Bureau moved forward and unveiled the new rules in the White House Rose Garden.The rule is due to go into effect...

A chorus of prosecutors, gun legislation advocates, law enforcement officials, and corporate shareholders are calling on global credit card giants Visa and Mastercard to stop facilitating payments for “ghost guns,” or untraceable, easy-to-assemble firearm kits that are often sold over the internet. Visa and Mastercard, which process 75% of all credit card transactions in the United States, have so far refused to do so. Mastercard’s board unanimously recommended that shareholders vote against a new proposal that calls on the company to take action. “Payment processors like MasterCard absolutely have the ability to restrict transactions related to ghost guns on their...

Presidential Address

The Saturday shooting at a Buffalo, N.Y., supermarket that left 10 people dead will be investigated as a hate crime, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of New York Trini Ross said during a press conference. Erie County Sheriff John Garcia called the shooting a “straight-up racially motivated hate crime.” Police said a white man drove from hours away to go into a Tops Friendly Market, which is in a predominantly Black neighborhood, and opened fire.