Ghost guns and the teens who buy them are a haunting problem for US law enforcers

Ghost guns are the latest addition to the arsenal of weapons in the hands of the US public – all too often teenagers’ hands due to the ease with which they can be bought.

Sold in ready-to-assemble kits online, their proliferation in the past five years has triggered a wave of alarm among all those concerned about gun violence. According to the Washington Post, 25,785 ghost guns were seized by police last year.

These un-serialized guns with a price tag of between $800 and $1,000, are sold to anyone prepared to part with the asking price, with no background checks or age verification.

In 2022, the Biden administration authorized the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) to enforce regulations requiring ghost-gun manufacturers and sellers to do background checks and age verification and mark their product with a serial number.

That same year, Jennifer VanDerStok, an advocate for constitutional rights, joined forces with the Mountain States Legal Foundation and the Firearms Policy Coalition to block the new regulations in the US Supreme Court.

Arguing before the Supreme Court on behalf of the Biden administration, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, said “those basic requirements are crucial to solving gun crimes and keeping guns out of the hands of minors, felons, and domestic abusers,” reports K-12 Dive news site.

The non-profit Everytown for Gun Safety has drawn up a list of more than 50 incidents involving teens and ghost guns since 2019. One involved a 16-year-old in New Rochelle, NY who had ‘a ghost gun factory’ in his bedroom and killed another 16-year-old.

In May this year, the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department in Wisconsin arrested seven teenagers who had set up a ghost gun manufacturing ring, according to WISN news site.

Photo: screenshot from WISN news program.

“They’re going to high school during the day and at night, they have this illegal gun manufacturing operation going on instead of doing their homework,” Sgt. Colin Coultrip told WISN.

Photo: screenshot from WISN news program.

“Once seen as the weapon of choice by terrorists, criminals, and others who couldn’t pass background checks, ghost guns have now started to show up in the hands of children and teens and in shootings at schools across the country,” Mark Barden told K-12 Dive.

Barden’s seven-year-old son, Daniel, was among the 20 children and six adults killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012.

He is now the co-founder and co-CEO of Sandy Hook Promise, a nonprofit that advocates for gun violence prevention policies and programs.

According to Barden, ghost guns have been used in at least five school shootings, including the one at California’s Saugus High School in 2019, when a 16-year-old brought a ghost gun to school and shot five students, killing two, before turning the gun on himself.

Everytown for Gun Safety called these un-serialized weapons being bought without checks or trace, the “fastest-growing gun safety problem facing our country.”

“Protecting our kids from ghost guns requires a multi-prong approach,” said Eric Tirschwell, an attorney for Everytown for Gun Safety in The Washington Post.

Photo: screenshot from Everytown for Gun Safety website.

“Holding ghost gun kit manufacturers and sellers accountable in court when shootings result from their reckless and illegal business practices is a central pillar in that strategy,” he added.

Photo: screenshot from Everytown for Gun Safety website.