ghost gun
description: a firearm made by an individual, lacking serial numbers and often avoiding regulation
2 results
American Gun: The True Story of the AR-15
by
Cameron McWhirter
and
Zusha Elinson
Published 25 Sep 2023
A Northern California man, who was prohibited from possessing firearms because of a restraining order, killed five people in a November 2017 rampage using ARs that he made himself. By 2020, American law enforcement agencies had recovered about twenty-four thousand ghost guns in criminal investigations, many of them AR-15s. A federal counterterrorism task force warned that “criminals and violent extremists continue to seek ways to acquire firearms through the production” of ghost guns. On January 6, 2021, President Trump addressed more than ten thousand supporters gathered for what was billed as a “Save America” rally on the National Mall not far from the White House. Trump refused to accept his defeat by Democrat Joseph Biden in November’s presidential election, claiming the results were fraudulent.
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The rally in Richmond: Scott Calvert and Jon Kamp, “Thousands of Pro-Gun Advocates Rally in Virginia,” The Wall Street Journal, January 20, 2020, https://www.wsj.com/articles/virginia-officials-on-guard-for-pro-gun-rally-in-richmond-11579516202. A Northern California man: Zusha Elinson, “The Rise of Untraceable ‘Ghost Guns,’” The Wall Street Journal, January 4, 2018, https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-rise-of-untraceable-ghost-guns-1515061800. By 2020, American law enforcement: Joint Counterterrorism Assessment Team (JCAT), “First Responders Toolkit,” June 22, 2021, https://www.dni.gov/index.php/nctc-how-we-work/joint-ct-assessment-team/first-responder-toolbox. Many who came that day: See Tom Jackman, Rachel Weiner, and Spencer S.
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During a shootout, he killed a deputy and injured another before being arrested. Extremists such as Carrillo had learned to build AR-15s that couldn’t be tracked by the government. Beginning in the 2010s, a cottage industry arose employing Stoner’s design to build untraceable weapons, which police started calling “ghost guns.” The gun’s easy assembly made it simple. Under federal law, the only part of a gun that was deemed a firearm was the receiver, the metal or polymer piece that housed the firing mechanism. Manufacturers were required to stamp receivers with serial numbers. Anyone buying a serialized receiver was required to undergo a federal background check just as they would if they purchased a completed gun.
Home Grown: How Domestic Violence Turns Men Into Terrorists
by
Joan Smith
Published 5 Apr 2019
He was granted bail but Ms Poland and her mother-in-law were so terrified that they took out a restraining order a week later, arguing that Neal was unpredictable and unstable. The court did at least make some attempt to deprive him of his firearms, ordering him to hand over his guns, and he surrendered a single pistol. But Neal knew enough about weapons to make a ‘ghost’ gun at home, a semi-automatic rifle like the ones used in so many mass shootings, and he also managed to get hold of two handguns which weren’t legally registered to him. After the murders, relatives said that Neal had had mental problems for years, and the Tehama County district attorney described him as a ‘deranged, paranoid killer’169.