Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
In recent times, there’s been a concerted push by many in the anti-gun community to put a stop to backyard builds. These so-called “ghost guns” keep them awake at night out of fear that someone, somewhere, might get a gun without begging for government permission first. We’ve had a lot of stories over the last few months about how the number of these so-called “ghost guns” showing up at crimes are increasing all the time.
Usually without much in the way of hard numbers. After all, if you find one when you normally find none, that’s an increase in the number, but not a particularly alarming increase.
What I can tell you is how rarely you see any mention of them in news reports, which is interesting.
In fact, this story here is one of the few I’ve seen.
The City of Tonawanda man accused of shooting an acquaintance in a drive-by early Tuesday and then wounding a police detective used two “homemade” guns in the attacks, Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn Jr. said Wednesday.
Matthew Gerwitz, 28, was arraigned Wednesday on two counts of first-degree attempted murder of police officers, one count of second-degree attempted murder, and two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon in an arraignment where the judge, Gerwitz and lawyers appeared via videoconferencing. He pleaded not guilty and was remanded to the Erie County Holding Center.
Flynn said Gerwitz used a 9 mm pistol without a serial number and an illegally modified AR-15 style rifle in the attacks.
So…it sounds precisely one of these firearms was really a ghost gun. The other was modified in a way that made it illegal in New York, but not necessarily in other states.
However, the deeper point is that this is one of the few stories, if not the only story, I’ve seen where it’s specifically mentioned that a so-called “ghost gun” was used.
Now, if these weapons represent such a growing threat, why is this one of the few specific examples of someone being accused of using such a weapon specifically? As it stands, we tend to get vague comments about their use. We hear that their numbers are “growing” and that police are seeing “more” of these, but very few specifics.
If the threat is that severe, shouldn’t we be hearing this all the time? Should I have come across tons and tons of such stories while researching for posts?
I ask because I haven’t. I’ve seen no such thing.
Now, that’s not to say that I’ve seen every article on guns floating around. I’m just one guy, after all. However, I’m also someone who spends a lot more time looking at news from all over the nation, particularly local news, than your average bear. You’d still think I’d have seen something other than this, but…crickets.
In other words, the “threat” posed by these weapons is a fabrication. It’s an effort to paint homemade, backyard built firearms as a clear threat to the American people in an effort to rally the public to call for their banning. The problem is that you’ll never actually eliminate them. It’s simply not going to happen.
The only people hurt by such a rule will be hobbyists who will remain law-abiding. Criminals interested in building guns for criminals will keep doing it. Even if there are no kits anymore nothing built by man cannot be rebuilt by man. They’ll keep doing it so long as there’s money in it, and criminals will always have money to some degree.
It’s a non-issue and the fact that this story is one of the few I’ve seen illustrates that quite nicely.
Tom Knighton is a Navy veteran, a former newspaperman, a novelist, and a blogger and lifetime shooter. He lives with his family in Southwest Georgia. https://bearingarms.com/author/tomknighton/
https://bearingarms.com/tom-k/2020/05/28/homemade-guns-crime-rarity/