In a decisive ruling on Friday, a federal judge in Manhattan dashed the hopes of nine companies peddling “ghost gun” kits to evade legal repercussions in New York. These entities, which market unfinished firearms lacking serial numbers, found themselves in the crosshairs of the state’s Democratic attorney general, Letitia James. Despite their claims that their products aren’t firearms, U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman saw through their rhetoric, citing their own marketing materials, which brazenly boasted about the ease with which their kits could be transformed into deadly weapons.
Among the defendants were prominent names like Arm or Ally, Rainier Arms, and Brownells, all accused of contributing to the proliferation of untraceable firearms, commonly dubbed “ghost guns.” Attorney General James initiated legal proceedings against these companies in 2022, arguing that their products posed a significant threat by circumventing regulations designed to track firearms and prevent them from falling into the wrong hands.
The lawsuit alleged that these companies, by selling frames and receivers without the mandated serial numbers, facilitated the creation of weapons that could be obtained by individuals legally prohibited from owning firearms. Such untraceable firearms, James contended, had become the weapon of choice for many criminals, exacerbating the issue of gun violence in New York. Indeed, statistics presented in court revealed a disturbing trend, with the number of ghost guns recovered at crime scenes skyrocketing from 44 in 2018 to a staggering 797 in 2022.
In a poignant example underscoring the danger posed by these unregulated firearms, it was revealed that several defendants had dispatched their products to an address where a man was later apprehended for threatening his wife and child with a gun.
Despite a federal appeals court’s prior ruling in New Orleans deeming unfinished frames and receivers not to be firearms, Judge Furman dismissed the argument, deeming the court’s rationale as neither binding nor persuasive. The Biden administration, staunchly committed to curtailing the proliferation of ghost guns, has escalated the matter to the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking a definitive resolution.
As the legal battle rages on, the spotlight remains firmly fixed on the grave implications of unregulated firearms and the efforts of authorities to stem their flow into communities already grappling with the scourge of gun violence.
