President Biden's "Ghost Gun" and "necessary executive action" announcement made great headlines and tugged at the heartstrings, but I'm not sure if it will help reduce crime or increase his poll numbers.

Using definition-by-consensus, ghost guns are described as unserialized, unregistered, untraceable, unnumbered, unfinished parts (or components) that  can be milled, machined (or printed on a 3-D printer), and then assembled into a firearm or chopsticks.  In fact, the vague floating abstraction of a ghost gun implies other deadly weapons...not just firearms.  If the president is sincere in his efforts to rid America (primarily conservatives) of their deadly weapons, there are easier, more convenient starting points.

Put another way, given Biden's "safety first" approach, stretching those regulations a little farther might get everyone hyperventilating about the unrecognized hazards of other unregistered potential weapons.

Anyone familiar with construction, carpentry, or the building trades knows the lethal potential of nail guns, whether they are powered with compressed air, electricity, or .22 caliber ammunition.  Yes, you can purchase off-the-shelf powder charges for most "fasteners" at all the Big Boxes and hardware stores.  Just google "powder-actuated loads, pins, concrete/steel nails."

For less than $100, any construction worker or weekend warrior can purchase a "tool" closely resembling a gun and, in the same store, buy a can of black spray paint (often behind a locked cage) that can turn the innocuous nailing device into a Construction Assault Weapon (CAW).

By the way, does anyone remember why spray paint was originally forced behind the sliding glass cases in California?  In 1982, the Los Angeles bureaucrats and Governor Jerry Brown believed that the epidemic of graffiti could be controlled, even halted, by making it difficult for gang hoodlums to access cans of spray paint.  Pressurized aerosol paint was proclaimed to be graffiti paraphernalia.  Unfortunately, young, artistic Crips and Bloods discovered that chalk, grease pencils, watercolors, and even lipstick could be used to mark territory and write vulgar words on freeway overpasses.

But back to that "safety first" agenda...  Let's symbolically re-imagine staple guns, paint guns, caulk guns, glue guns, paintball guns, privately-owned TASERS, stun guns, spontaneously firing antique guns on movie sets, video games, 3-D printer–generated gun parts, and the gateway weapon for young boys: squirt guns.  All those could be regulated, right?

Image: Biden shows "ghost gun" kit.  YouTube screen grab.

But why stop there? Examples of death by sticks and stones are biblical. The bad news is that a rock was used to commit the first murder over sibling rivalry, but the good news is that a smaller rock, propelled by a shepherd boy and his trusty (homemade) sling, put Goliath in a quiet place.

How strange is it that a rock, in the wrong (or right) hands, can change history?  Would the Biden administration consider rocks that have been painted black to be "assault" rocks?  How do civilized nations, and bureaucrats, keep rocks from falling into the wrong hands?

When Ukraine was attacked, I saw news reports about unarmed citizens being given rifles and pistols and taught how to make Molotov cocktails.  There's room for regulation there, too.  And speaking of those exploding bottles, why didn't President Biden consider banning "ghost bottles" and containers of gasoline when buildings were being torched during the 2021 summer of love?

There's also the risk from millions of websites that instantly distribute diagrams, supplies, formulas, strategies, and instructional videos via the internet.  This means that anyone can manufacture a weapon from a pressure cooker, galvanized pipe with two screw-on end caps, a drone filled with yellowcake powder, a box-cutter, nitrogen fertilizer and diesel fuel, a large bag of baking flour w/floor fan, a sharp stick, a knife, a dagger, or an ice pick.  Those last three items can even penetrate a non-ceramic bullet-resistant vest.

But let's not stop there.  There are string weapons (recurve, compound, and crossbows) that can silently bring down an elk or a human.  Should all hunting tips, arrows, cams, levers, quivers, frames, sights, and stocks be registered as "deadly components"?  These are weapon "parts" that have been utilized by hunters, collected by kings and dictators, decorated by artisans, honed in competitive sports, used (and abused) by warriors and ancient gangbangers for several thousand years.

If a Louisville Slugger is kept by the front door as a defensive weapon, are a background check, registration number, and a warning label against improper use necessary? When that same piece of sturdy maple or white ash has been stolen, painted black (for night deployment by an escaped felon) and the model number has been illegally removed, would it be reclassified as an Assault Bat or Ghost Stick?

In light of the recent Brooklyn subway shooting and the possible resurgence of COVID variants, are we to assume that someone purchasing a military gas mask is trying to avert an infection, or should authorities be notified that the "suspect" may be planning a nerve gas attack?

And when you think of all the deadly weapons out there, ask yourself why it is that the Biden administration is going after one the Founders prioritized for protection in the Bill of Rights.  (For more on that, you can read Federalist 29 and 46.)  At the end of the day, should we really allow our safety to be regulated by the same geniuses who gave us Afghanistan evacuations, industrial-strength face masks, self-induced inflation, CRT, uncontrolled borders, and weaponized federal agencies?