TRENTON, NJ — Acting Attorney General Andrew J. Bruck announced Aug. 20 that New Jersey is leading — with Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia — a multistate coalition, including 22 attorneys general, in support of a U.S. Department of Justice proposal to strengthen federal regulations governing firearms.
Among other things, the DOJ’s proposed rule will ensure that federal requirements for serial numbers on firearms and background checks for firearm purchases will apply to products often marketed as “ghost guns.” Ghost guns are partially assembled firearms sold with the parts needed to create a fully operational gun, often with the instructions on how to do so. Because “ghost guns” are incomplete when sold, companies do not need to conduct background checks on purchasers. Completed ghost guns lack serial numbers, making it more difficult for law enforcement to trace the weapons to their owners and solve gun-related crimes.
Ghost guns are illegal in New Jersey under a law signed by Gov. Phil Murphy in 2018. But the lack of federal regulation has allowed ghost guns sold in other states to migrate into New Jersey, where they represent an increasing percentage of guns recovered by law enforcement. The proposed rule would close that loophole.
“We’ve made it a priority of my administration to protect New Jersey’s communities, and the brave men and women of law enforcement, by enacting and enforcing gun laws aimed at keeping untraceable, nonserialized firearms out of the hands of criminals, known terrorists, children and others who have no business possessing them,” Gov. Phil Murphy said. “But states should not be in this fight alone. For some time now, gun retailers across the nation have been exploiting loopholes in federal law to continue selling dangerous, easy-to-assemble gun kits to anyone with the ability to pay for them — and without a background check. The proposed federal rule we’re supporting today aims to end that madness, and we welcome it.”
“Under Gov. Murphy, New Jersey has been a national leader in the effort to reduce gun violence overall, and in particular to stop the flow of untraceable, build-them-yourself firearms into the hands of criminals and other individuals who have no business possessing them,” Bruck said. “But throughout our nation, too many of these untraceable guns are still sold and transported across state lines because of loopholes not addressed by the federal government. We’ve said for some time that ATF needs to tighten up its rules and take some of the onus off the states for combating illegal guns. Those pleas fell on deaf ears with the prior administration, but we’re heartened to see that action is now being taken.”
In May 2021, DOJ’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives announced the proposed rule to clarify how the federal Gun Control Act applies to a variety of firearm products, including firearm frames and receivers, which are the primary structural components of firearms.
Most importantly, the proposed rules would close loopholes in ATF’s existing policies that have exempted certain firearms — including ghost guns — from regulation under the Gun Control Act. By clarifying that weapon parts kits and other unfinished firearms, which can readily be completed, are subject to regulation by ATF, the proposed rule will require gun retailers to run background checks before selling these products. This will prevent dealers from selling the weapons to individuals who are prohibited by federal law from possessing firearms.
In addition, the rule will clarify that the Gun Control Act can apply to firearm frames and receivers even if the frame or receiver is split — a common feature of widely used semiautomatic weapons — or partially complete — a common feature of ghost guns. This will require manufacturers of gun kits to include a serial number on the frame or receiver found in the kit.
The rule would also require federally-licensed firearms dealers to add a serial number to any 3-D printed firearms or other nonserialized guns they plan to sell.
According to Bruck, in New Jersey at least 37 unmarked ghost guns have been used in shootings since the start of 2020. Moreover, ghost guns represent an increasing percentage of all firearms recovered by New Jersey law enforcement; 55 nonserialized guns were recovered in 2019 out of 3,385 total gun recoveries, just 1.62 percent, while 101 were recovered in 2020 out of 3,375 total gun recoveries, increasing to 2.99 percent, and 122 had already been recovered in 2021 as of July 15 out of 2,154 total gun recoveries, now at 5.66 percent.
Amid this steady increase, nearly 90 percent of the ghost guns recovered in New Jersey in 2020 and 2021 have been linked to kits sold by one particular company: Polymer80, a retailer of ghost guns that has stated plainly on its website that persons with past felony convictions can purchase its kit.
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