![]() He says a true ghost gun is a firearm with the serial number removed and what people refer to as ghost guns are actually called ‘80 percenters.’ “It’s only 80% complete which means it’s not a gun,” he explains. “There’s no such thing as that, that’s not a gun.” Ralston also argues the terminology is all wrong. “Instead we have stupid laws where they can just buy them, build them and be done with it,” he says. He believes individuals should be able to buy parts to assemble their own firearms but they should be upheld to the same background checks and serial numbers as any other regulated firearm. It’s a sentiment shared by Perry Ralston, owner of Perry’s Sporting Goods in Scotts Valley. “If you can’t pass a background check you shouldn’t have a gun.” “If you’re a law-abiding citizen who can pass a background check there’s no reason why you shouldn’t have a gun,” she says. That’s one of the reasons why she says she believes the build-yourself kits need to be better regulated. Perron says she is not anti-gun and grew up in a household with firearms, raised by a father who hunted. Moms Demand Action is a national grassroots movement for public safety against gun violence. Some 30% of guns recovered by the ATF in California are unserialized, says Celeste Perron, volunteer for the San Francisco chapter of Moms Demand Actions For Gun Sense in America, citing the NPF report. ![]() “Those ghost guns were in the possession of people you absolutely do not want to have guns,” the email continues. However, SCPD spokesperson Joyce Blaschke did write to GT in an email saying “officers have taken a few ghost guns off the streets.” The Santa Cruz Police Department was not able to return any statistics on the local retrieval of ghost guns by the time this article was published. Damon Gutzwiller in Ben Lomond on June 6, 2020. This particular model had been modified to fire as an automatic.Īnd it was a self-built AR-15 that was used by accused Boogaloo Boy and Airforce Sergeant Steven Carrillo when authorities say he killed Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Sgt. 18, during a routine traffic stop, Watsonville Police retrieved a concealed ghost gun from the car of 18-year-old Brian Mendez. Adrian Romaine was arrested and charged with multiple felony violations for the incident. On May 3, Santa Cruz Police retrieved a Polymer 80 9mm handgun when they received reports that an intoxicated man was brandishing a weapon at the Asti on Pacific Avenue in downtown. Locally, more ghost guns are showing up on the streets and in the news. Those proposed rules are currently under a 90-day public comment period. These proposals include providing serial numbers for individual parts, and redefining what gun frames and receivers are as well as the definition of firearms to include kits. On May 21 the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) under the Justice Department proposed new rules that would help to close the loopholes keeping ghost guns unregulated. “Gun violence in America … estimated to cost the nation $280 billion a year,” Biden said in his address from the White House Rose Garden. ![]() In April, the Biden Administration addressed the issue saying it will crack down on the selling of the kits in a country where an average of 316 people are shot every day and of those 106 die. It also found many of the retrieved weapons were in the possession of individuals who are barred from having firearms, particularly in New York City, Philadelphia and San Jose. ![]() For example, between 20 San Jose Police saw a 51% increase. It found that cities across the nation have seen an increase in the retrieval of ghost guns by law enforcement. 9 the National Police Foundation (NPF) released a comprehensive report detailing the proliferation of these weapons. The ban came on the heels of a nationwide surge in the use of ghost guns. Since they are not firearms per se, they can be sold online without traceable serial numbers or background checks. Commonly referred to as ghost guns, these kits are sold piece by piece, fully disassembled, or can be 3D printed at home making use of a federal loophole that claims since parts cannot fire on their own, they are not a firearm. In the beginning of September, San Francisco became the first city in the state to ban the buying or selling of build-it-yourself firearm kits. ![]()
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