Ghost guns

For several years now, some gun manufacturers have been exploiting a loophole in federal regulations to evade a range of gun control measures by selling firearms in pieces to be assembled later by consumers, including people barred from owning a gun.

The issue centers on so-called ghost guns, which consist of untraceable parts that can be ordered and then, with a little finishing work, assembled into a working firearm. The gun parts fall outside federal regulation because the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives held that while the core section of a gun—called a receiver or a frame—meets the legal definition of a firearm, an incomplete frame does not.

In what used to be the purview of gun hobbyists, manufacturers have surfaced that produce receivers and frames that are 80 percent complete, then sell them to people who finish the production by drilling holes and making other alterations that result in a completed part.

That piece is then the central part of a homemade gun that does not carry a stamped serial number or other traceable identifiers, and is often passed on or sold to people who otherwise would have to clear a background check. It’s no surprise that such guns have found their way into the hands of people barred from buying firearms, including those with violent criminal records or mental illnesses or both.

Although federal law says that receivers and frames that are “designed to or may readily be converted” into working guns must be regulated, the ATF has said in a series of advisory letters in recent years that the so-called 80 percent receivers by themselves do not clear that threshold.

But it shouldn’t be that hard for the Biden administration’s ATF to review its regulatory position on receivers and frames, and close the ghost gun loophole.