Recent reporting on “Ghost Guns” must be doing well in the mainstream media because it is a topic that is getting a lot of coverage, but that coverage is something very interesting. It would appear that the mainstream media is attempting to conflate “Ghost Guns” or unserialized firearms and machine guns, that or they know so little about firearms that they don’t know the difference.
A machine gun is a firearm that fires multiple times with one pull of the trigger. A “Ghost Gun” is a firearm that does not have a serial number. Let’s get that straight right way for the uninitiated.
Across several sites, it seems that the narrative on unserialized firearms is the same, it goes along the lines of “these things are dangerous, more dangerous than regular guns, and they need to be banned.” In order to drive that point home, many have engaged in a little embellishing.
One article from WRTV Indianapolis, a local channel run by ABC News, wrote the following: ‘Glock switches’ and ‘ghost guns,’ both are nicknames. One is for a 3D printed attachment on a handgun. The other is a gun you can assemble on your own, and both are untraceable in their own ways.
Now, this is worth noting because the article addresses both “Glock Switches” and “Ghost Guns” in the same piece and the language used would have a reader who is unfamiliar with firearms thinking that these two things go hand in hand.
For clarity, when this article references a “Glock Switch” they are referring to a component that would turn a semi-automatic firearm into a fully automatic firearm. Sadly, such a part is not going to be 3D printed with ease or in a way where it would last more than a few rounds.
Your run-of-the-mill guy who operates on the lowest level of the black market is most likely going to be printing with a low-quality PLA or ABS plastic, these printed components are not going to survive being subjected to the abuse of automatic fire. It should also be pointed out that converting a semi-automatic firearm to a fully automatic one is not the most difficult process in the world(I would show you but you would never hear from me or my dog again following that post).
The problem with conflating these two different things comes into play when the author points out just how easy it is to purchase a parts kit for an 80% lower.
As written in WETV Indianapolis:
They’re untraceable because they don’t come with a serial number and they’re easily bought online, built-in 30 minutes, with no background check required.
Muehlberger said he even bought one in his daughter’s name after she was killed with one.
“If a dead girl can buy a gun online, we’ve probably got a loophole that’s broken,” Muehlberger said.
According to the ATF, around 23,000 ‘ghost guns’ were reported to them between 2016 and the end of 2021.
The clueless would be left to assume that buying a part that makes a firearm fully automatic is not only totally legal but easy. Also, note that the author of this article does not point out that the individual they interviewed was buying an 80% parts kit, it is referred to as buying “a gun online”.
Political and cultural commentary that is done in this fashion is usually dishonest, however, because this falls under the field of firearms which is seen as complicated for some it is possible that this is no more than someone who didn’t do their research. That being said, I take it that this is the prior because of the current political climate.
President Joe Biden and his team of gun-grabbing freaks at the ATF are going in on so-called “Ghost Guns”. The mainstream media is salivating at the thought of America’s left tragedy. And second-stringers are stumbling all the way through. Be very careful with what you read online and see on TV, even local reporters get the facts wrong and often act as agents of a national political agenda.
