Gun safety groups are raising awareness of the phantom gun problem in Massachusetts.
Ghost guns are untraceable firearms without serial numbers, often created by 3D printers or assembled from kits purchased online.
Rep. Carlos Gonzalez, D-Springfield, joined Everytown for Gun Safety, Springfield’s mayor and police commissioner in hosting an awareness event Monday. He pointed to data showing 27 ghost guns were recovered in Springfield alone in 2021, compared to just six in 2020.
“Already they’ve seen a number that will surpass 2022,” Gonzalez noted. “Therefore, the police are on track to have recovered even more weapons that have no serial number, no means of tracing.”
Gonzalez noted that 3D-printed guns, for example, contain no metal and therefore cannot be seen with metal detectors. He is chairman of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee, which is work on an invoice to prohibit the assembly of firearms unless there is a serial number on the materials, and would prohibit the 3D printing of firearms without a permit.
Rina Schneur, co-lead of the Massachusetts chapter of Moms Demand Action, said ghost guns should be regulated like any other firearms. Massachusetts has the second lowest death rate in the country, next to Alaska, and she argued that it was largely because of strict Commonwealth regulations.
“The ability for people to acquire ghost weapons through 3D printed guns or kits really undermines and circumvents all of this legislation,” Schneur claimed. “Because people can acquire it, they don’t need background checks, they don’t need a license; it doesn’t need to be registered.”
At least 10 other states and Washington, DC, have already enacted bans on phantom weapons, and cities and local governments across the country have additional policies. According to the White House, approximately 20,000 suspected ghost guns were recovered by US law enforcement last year, ten times more than in 2016.
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With an increase in gun deaths in Connecticut and across the countrya new initiative in Hartford aims to stop gun violence through a partnership between community organizations and hospitals.
Through this collaboration, Saint Francis Hospital, Connecticut Children’s and Hartford Hospital will work with community organizations to provide mental health and other services to hospitalized individuals and families impacted by gun violence.
Andrew Woods is the Executive Director of Hartford Communities That Care About You, one of the hospitals’ partner organizations. He said supporting victims immediately after their injuries can help keep people safe in the long run.
“These programs are vitally important,” Woods said, “to really get families and individuals who have been impacted to take a look, first, to recognize the signs and symptoms of trauma – how it affects their lives, how it undermines their social-emotional well-being – and therefore puts them at increased risk of being re-victimized or committing acts of violence against another person.”
Hartford Communities That Care has operated a hospital-based violence intervention program with Saint Francis since 2004. Since then, they have connected more than 1,900 people who experience gun violence to medical and outreach services.
Kevin Borrup is the executive director of the Connecticut Children’s Injury Prevention Center. He said this type of initiative, which is already in place in cities across the country, is about treating gun violence as a public health crisis.
“We won’t be able to solve this problem, for example, with law enforcement alone,” Borrup said. “And so part of the intervention is to work with that family to make sure the abuse doesn’t happen to them again and to understand in their own lives, what can we do to ensure that?”
The initiative is backed by $2 million in US bailout funds. Hospitals are in the process of hiring a response specialist who will work with organizations to connect survivors to services, including mentoring and home visits.
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Illinois has a new law prohibiting the sale and possession of “ghost guns,” essentially untraceable firearms that are sold as kits online or at gun shows and then assembled at the home.
According to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violencethe kits do not have a serial number and can therefore circumvent traditional methods of gun tracing used by law enforcement.
At a press conference yesterday, Governor JB Pritzker said the new policy require people to register their ghost guns within the next six months to make tracing possible – a policy he has already pointed out is standard practice for any other firearm.
“A convicted domestic abuser shouldn’t be able to escape scrutiny by using a 3D printer to make a gun,” Pritzker said. “This law will ban these ghost weapons and others, and help keep families and communities safe.”
Illinois ban comes month after President Joe Biden announced new ghost gun regulations.
This measure would only allow kits produced by federally licensed manufacturers, require dealers and gunsmiths to add tracking numbers to ghost guns already in circulation, and require anyone purchasing a gun kit from a authorized seller to pass a background check.
State Senator Jackie Collins is one of the main sponsors of the measure. Chicago Democrat says Biden’s new policies don’t go far enough and new Illinois law will put responsibility for ghost gun registration in the hands of individual citizens, not manufacturers and sellers .
“Without this provision,” Collins said, “phantom guns will continue to find their way into the hands of those who seek to harm others.”
At least ten other states and Washington, DC, have already enacted phantom gun bans, and cities and local governments across the country have their own gun policies.
About 20,000 suspected ghost weapons were recovered by US law enforcement last year, according to the White House, ten times more than in 2016.
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Pennsylvania is ready to set up a new Biden administration federal rule on the regulation of phantom weapons at the state level.
Ghost guns are serial numberless firearms that can be purchased online and assembled at home, making them untraceable. The Biden settlement will ensure that partially manufactured frames and receivers require background checks at the point of sale, while requiring dealers and state gunsmiths to serialize and inventory all unregistered firearms entering their businesses. .
Gov. Tom Wolf said phantom guns are fueling Pennsylvania’s gun violence crisis.
“The numbers don’t lie,” Wolf said. “Ghost weapons are being seized and recovered from crime scenes at an alarming rate. Together, the Pennsylvania State Police and Philadelphia police have already recorded 147 ghost gun seizures this year.”
The federal regulations will come into effect 120 days after April 26, the date on which they were published in the
Federal Register. Gun deaths in the United States hit an all-time high in 2020, with more than 45,000 people killed from gun-related injuries, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
York Police Commissioner Michael Muldrow said he had already confiscated 10 phantom guns in the first four months of the year. He added that ghost weapons have made it harder to solve violent crimes and hold those responsible accountable.
“Gun violence is the number one threat facing our communities across this county, in this state and across the country,” Muldrow said. “And the one thing that I hope we can all agree on, no matter which side of the line you fall on, is to do what we need to do to stop the flow of illegal weapons into our neighborhoods.
In 2019, Pennsylvania began to classify “80% receivers”, mostly assembled frames often used to make ghost guns, like firearms, requiring a serial number and background check upon purchase.
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