Sellers of easy-to-assemble "ghost guns" are finding ways to continue offering their products online even after the Biden administration issued a rule aimed at regulating their sales, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives rule effective Aug. 24 requires licensed gun manufacturers to add serial numbers to kits that can be quickly assembled into working firearms and for retailers who sell them to conduct background checks on buyers. Ghost-gun companies have concluded that they can continue operating amid those requirements by selling the parts separately, instead of in a single kit, and leaving purchasers to put the parts together to create a working weapon.
“If somebody wants to make a firearm at their home without a serial number, they can do it just as easily as they could last week,” said Rob Pincus, a firearms instructor, author and consultant who has built many homemade firearms. One of the largest ghost-gun makers, Polymer80 Inc., has stopped selling its unserialized “Buy Build Shoot” kits that contain all the parts needed for a ghost gun. However, it still offers on its website most parts needed to make homemade guns. President Biden ordered the new restrictions to clamp down on ghost guns, which law-enforcement officials say appeal to criminals because all the parts can be bought and assembled without a background check.