“Ghost guns” are very much like “assault weapons” in several significant ways. They don’t exist in firearm nomenclature. They’re the invention of anti-liberty/gun Democrats/socialists/communists (D/s/cs), and they describe any gun, or in the case of “ghost guns” any gun part or group of parts, D/s/cs want to ban. Both are used in an insignificant number of crimes. The most common application of the term describes homemade guns without serial numbers.

Americans have always been able to make their own guns, even without serial numbers, but various anti-liberty/gun jurisdictions are considering changing that. Serial numbers weren’t required until the Gun Control Act of 1968, so there are untold millions of guns in circulation that never had serial numbers. Properly maintained, guns can last centuries.

Graphic: X Screenshot

It's perfectly within America’s Second Amendment rights to make their own guns, and a number of manufacturers make parts kits, including unfinished lower receivers—the portion of a gun housing the trigger and hammer/striker mechanisms—“80%” complete, that require some drilling and/or other machining/filing to finish. Because these are not complete firearms—they’re parts--they are not required to have serial numbers, and that, to federal and state bureaucrats, presents two problems: (1) That’s too much freedom for Deplorables, and (2) they need the power to write their own laws to keep Deplorables from having too much freedom.

That’s why the ATF has unilaterally declared such parts kits, and particularly non-serialized lower receivers (in the case of AR-15 pattern rifles) and frames (in the case of pistols) illegal, though the relevant laws say nothing about them. Revolvers aren’t really involved as they take far more work, specialized machinery and knowledge to make. It’s another case of the administrative state writing law through rule making. Congress, for many years, hasn’t cared enough about its own legislative prerogatives to reign in federal agencies, and the agencies just love having that kind of unaccountable power. The best part for the agencies is they get to be all three branches of government. They write the laws, enforce the laws and are the judges and juries as well. If they’re accused of violating citizen’s rights, they investigate themselves and find themselves blameless.

The issue is now before the Supreme Court, who last week heard oral arguments in Garland v. VanDerStok. The government wants to make this a crime prevention issue, but it’s really about whether the ATF has the power to make its own law, even in opposition to congressional intent. 

The Truth About Guns suggests the liberal members of the court, perhaps joined by Amy Coney Barrett and Chief Justice John Roberts, are, judging by their questions during oral argument, leaning toward government’s view. But Breitbart suggests otherwise:

He [Justice Samuel Alito] asked, “Here is a blank pad and a pen. Is this a grocery list?” The government answered no, citing numerous uses for the pad and pen.

He followed up by asking, “If I put on a counter some eggs, some chopped up ham, some chopped up pepper and onions, is that a western omelet?” The government again answered no, again citing “well-known other uses” for the eggs, ham, etc.

Justice Neil Gorsuch also demonstrated common, and legal, sense:

…asking about the scope of “ordinary meaning,” as applied to “every noun” used by Congress or the U.S. Code — if it can be used to see Alito’s pad and pencil as a grocery list. Therefore, Gorsuch suggests there “has got to be a line that makes [the government’s] theory the case.”

Gorsuch noted that as recently as 2021 “the government represented that an unfinished frame or receiver does not meet the statutory definition of a firearm.”

Government’s counterargument amounts to: “well yeah, but ghost guns!” I’m surprised they aren’t blaming Trump too.

But aren’t serial numbers a vital tool in solving crimes? No. Never, during my police career, did a serial number solve any crime, nor was I ever aware of such a case. Even if the police find a gun with a serial number at a crime scene, they have to trace it back through the manufacturer. If they have a record, the trace goes through the wholesale distributer, then the gun shop, and all that will tell the police is who originally, legally, bought the gun. Criminals tend to be lazy sorts. They don’t make guns or buy guns in gun shops. They steal them or buy them on the black market.

How many “ghost guns” are used in crimes? No one knows, and government crime statistics, as I recently reported, are wildly unreliable. What’s certain, however, is the number must be insignificant. There’s just no upside for crooks.

The upside for D/s/cs, worried, as Hillary Clinton recently said, about government losing total control, is obvious.

Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.