Rule proposed to crack down on ‘ghost guns’

The Justice Department proposed a rule Friday that would expand the definition of a firearm and help close a loophole that has allowed people to buy so-called ghost guns, firearms that are easily assembled from kits but are not regulated by federal gun laws.

The proposal was the latest effort by the Biden administration to crack down on gun deaths. President Joe Biden ordered the Justice Department last month to find a way within 30 days to curb the spread of ghost guns, with an eye toward keeping them from people who might not otherwise be able to pass a background check and buy a gun.

“Criminals and others barred from owning a gun should not be able to exploit a loophole to evade background checks and to escape detection by law enforcement,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement announcing the proposal.

“This proposed rule would help keep guns out of the wrong hands and make it easier for law enforcement to trace guns used to commit violent crimes, while protecting the rights of law-abiding Americans,” he said.

After mass shootings this year in the Atlanta area and Boulder, Colorado, Biden issued a half-dozen executive actions to address gun violence, including the directive to the Justice Department aimed at stopping the proliferation of ghost guns. Such guns have no serial numbers and are not tracked by the federal government.

“Criminals are buying kits containing nearly all of the components and directions for finishing a firearm within as little as 30 minutes and using these firearms to commit crimes,” the White House said in a statement at the time. “When these firearms turn up at crime scenes, they often cannot be traced by law enforcement due to the lack of a serial number.”

In a budget hearing this week before a House appropriations subcommittee, Garland told lawmakers that it was unclear whether ghost guns “are defined as firearms themselves.”

Under the proposed rule issued Friday, gun retailers would need to run background checks before selling kits that contain the parts necessary to make a gun, and gun kit makers would need to include a serial number for certain parts found in firearm kits that are easy to build.

The rule would also require federally licensed firearms dealers to add a serial number to any 3D-printed guns or other nonserialized firearms that they intend to sell. After the Justice Department issues its proposed rule on ghost guns and publishes it in the Federal Register, the public will have 90 days to suggest changes, the department said in a statement.

The Justice Department said that from 2016 to 2020, law enforcement officers recovered more than 23,000 firearms without serial numbers from potential crime scenes.

“Although this rule-making will solve only one aspect of the problem, we have an obligation to do our part to keep our families and our neighborhoods safe from gun violence,” Garland said.