Editorial Board
Ending the Growing Threat of Homemade Guns
Untraceable “ghost guns” assembled from kits are increasingly used in violent crimes. Law enforcement is raising the alarm.
Soon to be AR-15s.
Photographer: Bing Guan/Bloomberg
Whether it’s built in a factory or homemade, a gun is a gun. So why is the do-it-yourself kind almost entirely unregulated?
Online sellers of parts for “ghost guns” aren’t required to perform background checks on purchasers, and the components don’t have serial numbers. The finished firearms (including AR-15s and AK-47s) are effectively untraceable. Police across the country are seeing the results.