Since before the United States existed as an independent nation, Americans have been making firearms at home. If President Biden’s proposed limitations on “ghost guns” take the form that the gun-control movement hopes they will, this centuries-long practice will soon be brought to a close. Anyone who wishes to avoid the imposition of yet another federal fence around their rights should be watching this development with apprehension.
The gun-control group Everytown describes a “ghost gun” as a “a do-it-yourself, homemade gun made from easy-to-get, unregulated building blocks . . . made by an individual, not a federally licensed manufacturer or importer.” And, naturally, it wants them controlled. “Federal authorities,” its website declares, “must act to ensure that the core parts for ghost guns are defined as firearms and properly regulated.” Thus far, Biden has been focused on the “building blocks” part of this argument, having promised to do something about the “kits” that, he says, contain “nearly all of the components and directions for finishing a firearm.” And yet, as Everytown makes clear, that amateur gun-builders can obtain “core parts” without a background check is only half of the objection here. The other half rests on the mere existence of “fully functioning, untraceable firearms” — a “problem” that can be meaningfully “solved” only by outlawing homemade guns in toto.
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