Number of ghost guns recovered at crime scenes has surged since 2017, study shows

Published January 09,2025

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The variety of untraceable privately-made “ghost guns” recovered at crime scenes surged almost 1,600% between 2017 and 2023, in response to the outcomes of a brand new federal gun trafficking examine launched on Wednesday.

The examine’s outcomes, introduced by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), come after President Joe Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland in April 2021 directed the company to supervise a brand new analysis initiative to raised perceive how criminals within the United States get hold of their weapons.

The examine discovered between 2017 and 2023, 92,702 suspected privately made firearms or “ghost guns,” which will be obtained with out background checks and don’t include serial numbers, have been recovered and reported to legislation enforcement.

During that very same time-frame, the variety of ghost weapons recovered in crimes grew from 1,629 to 27,490, the ATF mentioned. About 1,700 of them have been tied to homicides, whereas one other 4,000 have been linked to a lot of different violent crimes.

The recoveries of illicit machine gun conversion gadgets, that are used to transform semi-automatic weapons into machine weapons, additionally elevated 784%, from 658 in 2019 to five,816 in 2023, the ATF discovered.

The Biden administration has sought to crack down on the rise of unregulated “ghost guns,” in a bid to sort out issues about gun violence within the United States.

In October, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments over the legality of a Biden administration-led effort to manage them, after a decrease court docket discovered the ATF had exceeded its authority.

The justices signaled a willingness to uphold the rule, and a choice is predicted by the tip of June.

Steven Dettelbach, the ATF’s director, mentioned on Wednesday that the examine’s findings general help the necessity for extra background checks earlier than firearms are bought.

“The data show that in 60% of trafficking investigations, the end recipient of a trafficking firearm is a convicted felon,” he advised reporters at a digital news convention.