U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut chaired a key judiciary subcommittee hearing about a proposal to ban so-called "ghost guns" in an attempt to prevent gun violence.
Ghost guns are firearms that can be built from a kit ordered off the internet. Blumenthal said they can kill just as many people as guns bought from a store. But this gun doesn’t require an ID, licensing or a background check to purchase.
“In Connecticut, police have recently seized ghost guns in narcotics investigations, traffic stops and home invasions. In Hartford in recent years, police have seized roughly 10 ghost guns per year, and just last fall police arrested a suspect in possession of a ghost gun in connection in a shooting in East Hartford,” Blumenthal said.
Nicholas Suplina is with Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit that advocates for gun control.
“We’ve learned that ghost guns are rapidly becoming the weapon of choice for armed extremists. The House Committee on Homeland Security has concluded that ghost guns are a threat to our national security, and we have found numerous examples of white supremacists and anti-government extremist groups building ghost guns and using them with deadly intention and effect,” Suplina said.
Richard Vasquez is formerly with the U.S Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He now works as a firearms regulatory consultant.
Vasquez testified these guns are a hobby for law-abiding citizens and pose no threat.
“I believe there will be little to no effect on reducing crime by regulating these homemade firearms. If we want to stop crime, lawmakers and enforcers should be going after firearms traffickers, the criminals that have guns and sell them to other criminals, not law abiding citizens who chose to manufacture them at home,” Vasquez said.
President Biden’s Justice Department has proposed a rule change that would criminalize ghost guns.