San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles: California and its major cities have declared war on kit pistols and other "ghost guns" sold on the Internet without any control, the use of which has exploded in them month.
On Tuesday, September 14, the city of San Diego passed an ordinance prohibiting the sale or possession of spare parts for these weapons, which will take effect in one month.
In late August, the Los Angeles City Council passed an ordinance prohibiting the possession or sale of kit firearms in the city.
"When we see the increase in homicides here, and the Los Angeles police find that 40% of crime-related firearms are ghost weapons, we know we have to face a critical situation
,
"
said little before the vote Paul Koretz, elected municipal officer at the origin of the ordinance against these weapons, totally non-traceable.
"Phantom weapons have been around for about nine years, but they have become a major problem in 2020, with the confiscation of 814 phantom weapons in Los Angeles alone,"
Deputy Police Chief Kris Pitcher told City Council.
He estimates that up to 2,500 of these weapons could be seized this year.
For a long time reserved for a handful of enthusiasts, these kit weapons can be ordered on the Internet as easily as Ikea furniture, denouncing their detractors.
They are now often found in the hands of criminals and others who could not obtain them in a traditional gun shop, where identity checks are required in many US states, including California.
They are also called “80% guns” because they are sold already assembled at 80%. It is then enough to obtain the remaining parts, often from the same dealer, to drill a few holes and to assemble them to have a fully functional weapon but without a serial number. According to a study by the organization Everytown for Gun Safety, which fights against gun violence, a kit to assemble an AR-15 type rifle - one of the most popular in the United States and often used in mass shootings - thus can cost less than $ 400. The argument of one of the online sellers assures us
: “The assembly time is not very long. In an hour or two, you should be able to train it at the shooting range ”
.
These kits are often accompanied by tutorials on YouTube, some of which have recorded hundreds of thousands of views.
In northern California, San Francisco has just sued three manufacturers of phantom weapons to try to stem their proliferation.
"We are directly targeting those responsible for the arrival of these dangerous and uncontrolled weapons on the streets of San Francisco and throughout California,"
said city attorney, Chesa Boudin.
According to statistics from the ATF, the federal firearms agency, California alone accounted for 65% of the phantom guns seized last year in the United States.
"California is the epicenter"
of this epidemic, confirms Adam Skaggs, legal director of the Giffords Law Center. The NGO is named after Gabby Giffords, a former elected official who was seriously injured by gunshot in 2011.
“One of the reasons guns have become such a big problem in California is because she owns the guns. strictest gun laws in the country ”
. So the ghost guns,
"which exploit a kind of legal loophole, become very attractive there,"
Adam Skaggs told AFP.
"Whether it's people who have a criminal record, a domestic violence report, or who are too young to be eligible to buy a weapon ... they can get a ghost gun because there is no has no verification, ”
laments the lawyer.
This is why the Giffords Center has joined in the proceedings brought by San Francisco against the three manufacturers who, according to Adam Skaggs, violate certain federal and California laws, notably on consumer safety for example. In accordance with President Joe Biden's desire to better regulate firearms, the ATF recently announced its intention to modify its rules to force manufacturers to provide their kits with a serial number and to check the background of their buyers.