Thread by @WholePicture_

#Thread about #GhostWeapons :
Components for so-called ghost guns can be ordered online in the USA and assembled at home in next to no time. They are increasingly the tool of choice for extremists.

Source: nzz.ch/international/…

Joe Biden has declared war on them - the so-called ghost weapons.
A new legislative proposal in the USA is to ban the possession and sale of self-made firearms in the future.

Like a toy, ghost weapons can be bought as a kit online or from an arms dealer and are assembled in no time. Do-it-yourself manufacture of guns for personal use is legal in the United States.

The “advantage” of the so-called ghost guns is that they do not have a serial number. This poses quite a problem for the police in the case of crimes, as they can hardly be traced without a serial number.

You don't know who made, bought or sold them. Combating arms smuggling is also made more difficult.
However, guns without a serial number may not be bought or sold as a whole.

A trick is therefore used: the main component of a firearm is the so-called "lower receiver", which makes it possible to actually shoot the weapon. Usually it is a piece of metal or a piece of hard plastic that creates a connection between the barrel, stock, grip and magazine.

While you can buy a gun barrel or a handguard for your rifle without having to present an extract from the criminal record, the "lower receiver" is a firearm under US federal law and needs a serial number.

The components for a weapon can therefore be purchased online or in a store without a serial number and without prior background clarification through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

The ghost weapons are now delivered with an unfinished “lower receiver”, also called “80 percent lower receiver”.
So this one is not completely finished, is therefore not considered a weapon and does not have a number.

The completion has to be done at home: for example, a few holes have to be drilled before the weapon is functional.

Special technical knowledge is not required for the assembly. O
"If you can put together a piece of furniture from Ikea, you can make a weapon like that too."

A common misconception is that these must be weapons from a 3-D printer. It is true that the «receiver» can also be produced in such a printer, but that is not a requirement.

3-D weapons are mostly made of plastic and are not as durable, but of course they have deadly potential as well.

According to the ATF, around 10,000 ghost weapons were seized across the country in 2019 alone. An ATF analysis for May 2019 showed that 30 percent of all weapons used in a crime in California did not have a serial number.

Right-wing extremists like ghost weapons
Ghost weapons are also used in Europe. The anti-Semitic assassin from Halle, who tried to break into the synagogue in 2019 and murder the people gathered there, had previously assembled a weapon himself, but it did not work properly.

Germany's strict gun laws may have prevented the perpetrator from legally obtaining a gun. However, they couldn't prevent him from building them himself. Although many people in Switzerland own a weapon, here too - unlike in the USA - strict regulations apply.

The homemade weapons are particularly “tempting for criminals and extremists on the lower steps of the ladder”.

In contrast to larger militias or terrorist groups, these often operated in a more isolated manner and without a logistical network. They were looking for ways to get weapons without being targeted by security agencies.

More professional users then probably want to have the high quality weapons that are not assembled unprofessionally themselves.