Cooling Kit Gun Glock - Authorities across the country, including in Sonoma County, are seizing dozens of guns that don't have serial numbers and therefore cannot be traced.|
With the ghost gun problem spreading not only in California, but across the country, my editors wanted to see how easy it is to get hold of a gun that has no serial number and cannot be tracked.
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"Glocktober is here!" announced an email in my inbox from a team called JSD Supply on October 1st.
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The Pennsylvania-based company is one of the world's leading sellers of what are known as "ghost guns," a term for guns that don't have serial numbers so they can't be tracked by law enforcement. Some have serial numbers removed, while others are assembled from kits or even made with 3D printers.
Although these guns have been around for about a decade, law enforcement officials in Sonoma County — and across the country — have seen a recent, dramatic increase in the number of guns used in violent crimes. The problem is particularly acute in California, which on October 13 sued three companies that manufacture and sell firearms.
After seizing three illegal, non-manufactured firearms in 2018, then 10 in 2019, Santa Rosa police collected 15 last year. From Wednesday, said St. Chris Mahurin, the police had brought in 37 ghost guns—more than a quarter of all the guns they collected for evidence.
As of Oct. 13, the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office had seized 28 firearms in the past year, said Sgt. Juan Valencia. This was from the 23 they had collected the previous year. Most of those weapons, he said, "were related to drugs and gang activity."
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Across the state, communities are seeing a similar increase in arrests, which the Los Angeles Police Department describes as a deadly epidemic.
In 2013, one of the guns used to kill five people in a mass shooting at Santa Monica College was a kit-built AR-15; and another killer from Tehama district who is not allowed to own a gun killed five people and injured nine others in 2017 using guns he made illegally at home.
To help us better understand the problem, the editors of the Press Democrat asked me to buy and collect a ghost gun. They had many questions, but the main one was this: How easy is it to buy and build one of these weapons?
At The Press Democrat, our editors began discussing ways to examine the rise of ghost guns in ways that readers can relate to and easily understand.
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But to solve or explain a problem, you have to understand it, and frankly, we don't understand much about spiritual weapons.
To better solve this problem, we asked one of our former journalists, Austin Murphy, to do two things: tell the readers how big the problem is, and also see how easy it is to find a gun without a serial number.
Buying online, I had no problem ordering a lower receiver or a gun frame. In one deal, I asked for a finishing kit for this gun, including the slide, barrel and trigger - "everything you need to finish your gun like a pro, no paperwork," the seller promised.
Both packages arrived at my door within days of ordering. Of course, building a gun for this troublesome journalist was difficult. Even with the help of two friends it took me about a day longer than I expected.
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But overall, it took less than eight hours spread over several days to create a high-speed, deadly weapon.
Democrat columnist Austin Murphy builds a polymer80 Glock 19 "ghost gun" clone with parts obtained through online dealers at his home on Thursday, October 14, 2021. (John Burgess/The Press Democrat)
That struck me as a little surreal - having never owned a gun - as did the filing, on a recent earnings report, of a $109.98 charge for a Polymer80 PF940C pistol lower receiver - essentially a Glock 19 knockoff.
But I still needed the slide, barrel and other things to complete the weapon. It was then hit with sticker shock. It looked like these parts would cost $450.
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To the rescue comes JSD Supply, based in Prospect, Pennsylvania. With a serious Glocktober discount, I scored a PF940C "Complete Build Kit" - minus the frame I already had - for $399.
To legally own a firearm in California, you must apply to the state Department of Justice for a unique number. While I can jump through these government hoops, many who buy and manufacture spiritual weapons do not - for the simple, obvious reason that they would fail a background check.
According to JSD Supply's online "Terms and Conditions," customers are asked to prove that they have never been convicted of a crime or domestic violence, or have been "admitted to a mental institution or convicted of mental retardation" and that they have not. "now under the criminal law prohibits you from hunting, threatening or abusing a child or your close friend."
But the company can't be more specific in its appeal to potential buyers who want a gun but can't pass a background check for exactly the reasons mentioned above. He poses a question on his website: "Why build your own gun?"
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With some guns, the answer comes: “You go to a gun store, fill out a bunch of forms. They will do an initial check and depending on your situation you may have to wait a while.
By ordering with JSD, “you'll get 80 percent down payment and all the parts you need to complete the shoot delivered to your door. There are no papers. And without serialization, there is no way to track your purchases. "
Democrat Press Secretary Austin Murphy ordered the parts needed to build a Polymer80 Glock 19 clone "ghost gun" through Internet vendors. Photo taken on Thursday, October 14, 2021. (John Burgess/The Press Democrat)
As my three brothers never tire of reminding me, I am not free. I was the Cub Scout whose Pinewood Derby rig wobbled across the finish line without a tire. I have shot a gun twice in my life. And now I would... build one?
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The white P80 cardboard box with the PF940C "base receiver" arrived in the mail with a cool sticker but no instructions. For guidance, I went to the Polymer80 website and clicked on "Deals". To accurately drill various pin holes, I would need a drill equipped with a cross vise, a contraption that does not appear in my modest, motley collection of tools.
Feeling nervous as I reviewed the instruction, I wrote to my neighbor Nathaniel, who has many guns and is able to attend an important meeting. The next day we went to his shop with a kit.
The drilling went well. Polymer80 almost idiot-proofs these steps by including a fixture that holds the bottom of the gun, making sure the holes go in the right place.
The Polymer 80 Glock 19 "ghost gun" parts are held in place using pins that are driven into the gun through pre-drilled holes. Photo taken on Thursday, October 14, 2021. (John Burgess / The Press Democrat)
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It took a long time to cut and drill then to smooth the "barrel block". After using a drill, X-acto knife, and some sandpaper to complete the job, we used a nipper to cut rectangles of polymer in the direction we wanted to sink the house rail, then the front locking block.
Writing a file at some point during this time - which, to be honest, was even more efficient than Polymer80 had led me to believe - Nate noted that the time it took to assemble this gun served, in a way, as its "cooling off time."
Life and several other deadlines intervened. I was finishing the shot on my dining room table two weeks later.
When I placed my order, I had no idea that this gun was the Polymer80 model used by the man who shot two Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies in the head in an ambush last year. This soldier has been convicted before. Both officers survived.
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In response to the new law proposed by the Department of Justice in May to control guns, Ted Cruz, a conservative senator from Texas, argued during the Senate Judiciary Committee that they were a "fake problem" that did not require a new law.
"There is nothing scary about ghost weapons. They look like guns. They shoot like guns. They kill like a gun.
"There is nothing scary about ghost guns," he said. “He looks like a weapon. They shoot like guns. They kill like a gun.
A gun made with Polymer80 parts was used in a triple homicide in Glendale in April 2019, according to a lawsuit filed by the company with the city of Los Angeles and the gun protection group Everytown For Gun Safety.
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More than 700 invisible Polymer 80 guns were found in Los Angeles
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