Prosecutors in New York are reported to have charged Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old man arrested as a “strong person of interest” in connection with the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, with murder in US. Mangione was arraigned at the Blair county courthouse in Pennsylvania Monday night, where his bail was denied as prosecutors cited fake IDs and a large amount of cash found on him to argue that he was a flight risk.
Mangione allegedly had a specific type of weapon, a 'homemade' variety known as a "ghost gun". The gun found on him "had the capability of firing 9 mm round and a suppressor”, New York Police Department Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny was quoted as saying in an NBC news report.
According to the police, the “ghost gun” was apparently made with a 3D printer.
What Is A 'Ghost Gun'?
The firearm used in the murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO can not only be made with a printer but also bought online as a do-it-yourself kit to be assembled at home. The term "ghost gun" generally refers to firearms purchased as incomplete frames and receivers — the core components of a firearm — which can be transformed into fully functional guns by assembling them with additional parts that are available separately.
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The use of such guns appears to have seen an increase in the past decade, and the reason is, as per a report in The Guardian, they don't come with serial numbers and hence can’t be traced by authorities. That's precisely why it has got the name — 'ghost guns'. The weapons simply don't exist in the records of law enforcement agencies. While the DYI kit could be bought online without any background check prior to 2022, 3D printers have also been used to build the gun, its parts and accessories.
History Of 'Ghost Guns'
The DYI gun kits are said to have been a niche hobby among gun enthusiasts since the 1990s, but they began to see broader use and gained significant attention in the early to mid-2010s. 'Ghost guns' were associated with severa; high-profile incidents during the time.
The 2013 Santa Monica mass shooting, a 2014 bank robbery in Stockton, and a 2017 rural Tehama County spree that resulted in six deaths were some of the notable cases in California, according to reports.
Then there was that 2019 case when a 16-year-old in Santa Clarita used a 'ghost gun' to kill two students, injure three others, and then take his own life. The following year, during protests against police violence, Steven Carrillo employed a homemade machine gun in attacks that left two security guards at an Oakland federal building and a Santa Cruz sheriff's deputy dead.
In 2022, a man prohibited from owning firearms due to a domestic violence restraining order used a 'ghost gun' to kill his three daughters, their supervisor, and himself.
Lawsuits and legislation have targeted kit makers and banned their sale in California.
The guns had become popular largely after Cody Wilson, a prominent advocate for 3D-printed and ghost guns, founded a company, Defense Distributed, which provides digital schematics for firearm manufacturing. Although an Obama-era law intended to restrict the distribution of these files was upheld in 2019, legal ambiguities allow such schematics to remain accessible online.
Despite efforts to regulate ghost guns, their recovery by police has sharply increased. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) confiscated 25,785 ghost guns in 2022, a dramatic rise from 1,629 in 2017, as per data from the Department of Justice and ATF quoted in the NBC News report cited above. From January 2016 to December 2021, law enforcement reported recovering approximately 45,000 suspected privately made firearms during criminal investigations, including 692 homicides or attempted homicides. Reports indicate that recoveries rose annually during this period, from 1,758 in 2016 to 19,344 in 2021.
According to the ATF, only 0.98% of ghost guns submitted by law enforcement could be traced to individual purchasers, all thanks to the absent serial numbers.
Are Ghost Guns Legal In US?
At the federal level, it is legal to buy and assemble a ghost gun in the US, but regulations around these firearms were tightened under the Joe Biden administration.
In 2022, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) introduced a new rule that classified certain components of ghost gun kits as traditional firearms. This rule requires kit manufacturers to serialise incomplete frames and receivers and mandates background checks for buyers. Additionally, federally licensed gun dealers must maintain sales records for ghost gun kits until they go out of business.
This regulation faced immediate backlash from kit manufacturers, Second Amendment advocates, and attorneys, who argued that the ATF had exceeded its authority. The rule is now central to the Supreme Court case 'Garland v. VanDerStok', with oral arguments heard on October 8 when justices indicated a potential willingness to uphold the ATF’s regulations.
In 2022, President Biden announced measures aimed at curbing the availability of ghost guns, highlighting the finalised rule requiring serial numbers on kits and background checks for purchases. Biden described ghost guns as "the weapons of choice for many criminals" and emphasised the administration’s commitment to limiting access to them, the NBC News report said.
Despite these efforts, gun rights organisations and manufacturers have mounted legal challenges. Federal courts in Texas, including an appeals court, have ruled against the Biden administration’s regulations. However, the Supreme Court has twice allowed the regulations to remain in place while legal proceedings continue.
Gun safety advocates have been calling on Congress to close existing loopholes and codify the ATF rule into federal law. Over a dozen states have already passed their own laws to regulate ghost guns, Everytown for Gun Safety, a group focused on preventing gun violence, was quoted as saying in the NBC News report.
Advocates are also pushing for federal action on 3D-printed guns, which saw relaxed regulations during the Donald Trump administration in 2020. Although no federal law explicitly bans 3D-printed firearms, the ATF maintains that producing them for sale without a license is illegal. These firearms must also be detectable by metal detectors and X-ray machines. Some states have implemented their own laws to regulate or ban 3D-printed guns, as noted by Everytown.