ALBANY — A Manhattan state senator wants to make “ghost guns” disappear.
Manhattan Democrat Brad Hoylman is introducing a bill that would ban ghost guns and 3-D firearms in New York.
Ghost guns are weapons that are assembled from parts easily purchased online or from technology like 3-D printers.
Many cannot be detected by metal detectors because they are made of plastic parts, and are difficult to trace because they don’t contain serial numbers.
The Trump administration recently settled a case with Defense Distributed, a Texas nonprofit group, that will allow online sites to post blueprints for building ghost guns at home starting Aug. 1.
“Thanks to the Trump administration, anyone in America or across the world — be it a teenager, felon or terrorist — can evade a background check and manufacture a dangerous weapon with a click of a button,” Hoylman said.
“This is an existential threat to gun control as we know it.”
Under the legislation, which Hoylman drafted with state Sen. Kevin Parker (D-Brooklyn) and the California-based Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, it would be illegal to manufacture or assemble a ghost gun without a gunsmith license. The bill would mandate that such weapons be made so they can be picked up by a metal detector.
It would also require someone who assembles a ghost gun to register the weapon with law enforcement and obtain a permanently affixed serial number. It would be a crime under the bill to possess or transfer a ghost gun without a serial number.
“It is unconscionable to put the lives of New Yorkers and Americans at risk just to satisfy the demands of the gun lobby,” Hoylman said. “It’s now up to New York to close this deadly loophole that will allow dangerous individuals to access a gun on demand, and I’m proud to take those initial steps.”
Adam Skaggs, chief counsel for Gifford Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said the bill should “serve as a model for other states around the country.”
While he would not express his views on ghost guns, Tom King, an NRA board member from New York and president of the state Rifle & Pistol Association, said Sunday the issue should be determined at the federal level, not state by state.
“The fact that something may be illegal in New York and not illegal somewhere else does nothing but confuse the issue,” King said.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) recently called for federal action to outlaw ghost guns.
New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal on Thursday sent a “cease and desist” letter to Defense Distributed in an attempt to stop the release of the blueprints online.
