Report: Biden administration to propose 'ghost gun' rules

The Biden administration will roll out "ghost gun" regulations — an effort to crack down on untraceable firearms — as soon as Monday, according to The Associated Press. 

The report comes as the Biden administration and the U.S. Justice Department have been under growing pressure to crack down on gun deaths and violence across the nation. 

Ghost guns are assembled from parts that can be purchased online and assembled at home, according to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. They are often sold as kits that include all the equipment necessary to build weapons. The parts do not have serial numbers, which makes them virtually untraceable, and they can be purchased by anyone without a background check. 

Nearly 24,000 ghost guns were recovered by law enforcement at crime scenes and reported to the government from 2016 to 2020, according to Justice Department data. 

The rule is expected to change the current definition of a firearm under federal law to include unfinished parts, like the frame of a handgun or the receiver of a long gun.

In its proposed rule released last May, the ATF said it was also seeking to require manufacturers and dealers who sell ghost gun parts to be licensed by the federal government and require federally licensed firearms dealers to add serial numbers to gun parts they plan to sell.

The AP report came after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called on the Biden administration on Sunday to rein in ghost guns such as the one that may have been tied to the fatal shooting of a 16-year-old student in the Bronx on Friday. 

Schumer said Republicans in Congress have blocked legislation to regulate ghost guns, even as the number of ghost guns has skyrocketed in New York City and Long Island in recent years. He said a ghost gun kit can cost as little as $89.

“There is an epidemic of gun ghosts now flowing into New York City and Long Island and we have to do something about it,” Schumer (D-N.Y.) said during a news conference in Manhattan. 

Angellyh Yambo, 16, was shot Friday in the Bronx as she walked home from school, the NYPD said. Jeremiah Ryan, 17, of the Bronx was charged with murder Saturday in connection with her death. Yambo and two teens wounded in the shooting were not targets but were caught in the crossfire between Ryan and another person. The NYPD said it is trying to determine if Ryan used a ghost gun in the shooting. 

“It is high time we have an exorcism of ghost guns,” Schumer said Sunday during a news conference in Manhattan. 

The senator said officials in Nassau and Suffolk counties have also told him during recent conversations that strong action is required on ghost guns. Nassau District Attorney Anne Donnelly created a firearms suppression unit last month to stem the flow of illegal and untraceable weapons into the county. 

A Massapequa dentist was arrested in February after police seized 20 illegal firearms and 3,000 rounds of ammunition in his home office. Eighteen of those weapons were ghost guns, police said. Another Massapequa resident who shot himself in the hand was arrested earlier this month for allegedly possessing ghost guns.

“Long Island has not been spared of the public safety threat,” Schumer said.

Schumer said 17 ghost guns were seized in New York City in 2018, but that number has increased dramatically since then. In 2021, 375 ghost guns were seized in the city, he said. Law enforcement officials are on pace to seize more than 500 this year. 

“We are demanding that the federal government act strongly and quickly to end the scourge of ghost guns,” Schumer said.

With AP