Earlier this week, I wrote about how anti-gun Democrats have a tendency to chase “shiny objects” when it comes to gun control rather than address the actual problems. People are, of course, the issue, but they continue to fixate on regulations that won’t hurt criminals but will impact the actions of law-abiding citizens who did nothing wrong.
For example, in San Diego, local officials stood shoulder-to-shoulder with their congressman and demanded federal bump stock and “ghost gun” bans.
Congressman Scott Peters, joined by other local leaders, is calling for stronger federal action to combat gun violence. At a press conference held on Thursday at the County Administration Building, Peters emphasized the urgency of addressing issues such as ghost guns and bump stocks.
This June marks the eighth anniversary of the Pulse nightclub mass shooting in Orlando, FL, and is also Gun Violence Awareness Month. Peters underscored the significance of this timing for the press conference.
“I’m tired of seeing innocent Americans senselessly killed with military-style weapons—children at school, grandmothers at grocery stores, families at places of worship,” said Peters, who represents California’s 50th District.
He reflected on the second anniversary of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which he described as the most significant gun violence prevention legislation in decades but argued it did not go far enough. Peters is advocating for more stringent federal gun restrictions.
“These include a ban on ghost guns that can be built and assembled with a 3D printer. These guns are untraceable and completely unregulated,” Peters said.
While it’s not mentioned, Peters seems to also be advocating for an assault weapon ban.
Unfortunately for him, so-called assault weapons are only used in a tiny percentage of crimes and pretty much any mass shooting you care to name could just as easily have been committed with something else that would remain perfectly legal.
As for bump stocks, which did get a mention, they’re not exactly commonly used by criminals. Las Vegas was an outlier despite the devices having been available for more than a decade before the erstwhile ban was declared.
That’s not likely to change because so-called assault weapons are rarely used in crimes. Bump stocks go on things like AR-15s or AKs, not your garden-variety Glock. Yes, one was used in Las Vegas, but he could have committed just as much carnage with hunting rifles.
Now, let’s talk about so-called ghost guns for a second, because they’re a non-issue as well.
Peters thinks that this is a pressing need, much like bump stocks. However, on Friday, I wrote about one of his colleagues talking about these firearms. New Jersey’s Rep. Josh Gottheimer stated that since 2017, 37,000 “ghost guns” were recovered by law enforcement.
Now, if we’re being generous, let’s assume that’s through 2023 and doesn’t include any from this year.
That works out to just over 6,100 firearms annually, on average. Granted, that’s going to be lower some years and higher in others, but again, we’re looking at an average for the sake of comparison.
Meanwhile, according to the ATF, they were asked to trace 337,903 “crime guns” in 2017 alone. In 2021, that number had gone up to 460,024.
Now, for the sake of argument, let’s add all 37,000 guns to 2017’s total. These are unserialized firearms, after all, so there probably wasn’t an attempt to trace them, but let’s just see what happens.
We get a total of 374,903 guns.
Those ghost guns would account for 1.6 percent of the guns recovered that year.
And that’s if literally every gun was recovered in a single year and added to the total. Since those 37,000 were spread out over six years or so–it’s possible they’re all from 2017 to 2022 instead of to 2023, but we’ve already seen how little difference that would make–we’re looking at less than one percent of guns recovered are “ghost guns.”
So it’s a non-problem.
Especially when you consider that even if it were, there’s not much you can do about it. If the feds passed a law barring making your own gun, do you think people would just stop? These are criminals. They’re breaking all kinds of other laws, including some federal offenses, and not even blinking.
As it is, the part they’re printing is the part that’s generally considered to be the firearm itself. The rest are just parts that you can buy as replacement pieces or aftermarket modifications. Try to ban those and people will just figure out how to make them at home as well.
It’s downright laughable just how unserious these people are.
They’re making demands for laws that simply won’t do anything rather than looking at the things they can, such as dealing with criminals.
Then again, this is California. What did I expect?
