U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is looking to crack down on ghost guns and has a plan to stop them before they get made.
Gillibrand is introducing the 3D Printed Gun Safety Act to help combat the rise of ghost guns. The act would make it illegal to publish and distribute the blueprints that allow 3D printing of firearms. Gillibrand said this would help stop ghost guns from ever getting to the wrong people.
“By cracking down on the blueprints as well as the guns themselves, we can make it more difficult for dangerous individuals to get their hands on them,” Gillibrand said.
Ghost guns are homemade, untraceable firearms that can be purchased in kits online or 3D printed at home. These firearms are very difficult for law enforcement to track and are on the rise across New York with State Police finding 85% more ghost guns in 2022 than in 2021.
Gillibrand said it is important to see that the 3D-printed guns present a real threat to the safety of communities.
“We’re not talking about water pistols here,” Gillibrand said. “We are talking about real and fully operational semi-automatic firearms.”
Onondaga County Sheriff Tobias Shelley said it’s a given that the sheriff’s department is concerned about the rise in illegal firearms like 3D-printed ghost guns.
“We take it serious,” Shelley said. “We work in conjunction with our other partners, the Syracuse Police, the State Police, federally the ATF. We are working on this.”
The federal government has also implemented protections against ghost guns with the Supreme Court temporarily reinstating a rule that keeps the regulation of ghost gun kits the same as firearms.
