Last week, Congressman Mike Thompson, a Napa Democrat, reintroduced a bill that would require sellers of ghost gun kits to comply with federal regulations around gun safety.
Thompson said in a statement "Untraceable ghost guns are the fastest growing gun violence threat in our country, and they pose a significant risk to our communities and law enforcement.”
The proposed Ghost Guns and Untraceable Firearms Act, he argued, would help police crackdown on untraceable gun sales and keep these weapons out of the hands of criminals.
The bill requires that sellers of ghost guns have a manufacturer's license. They would also be required to put a serial number on the frame, or receiver in each kit. Buyers would be mandated to undergo a background check.
Ghost guns have no serial numbers and their sale and use has increased rapidly across the country.
Ghost guns recovered and traced by law enforcement rose more than a thousand percent between 2016 and 2021 – from more than 16-hundred to more than 19-thousand — according to the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a press release that he was doubling down on California's gun safety efforts, by defending the state’s common sense gun safety laws in court and increasing efforts to reduce the number of ghost guns.
