I've been hearing the term "ghost gun" a lot lately. It's like the antigun politicians are wanting to stir up antigun sentiment to rally the ignorant masses behind their evil plans.
Well, I'm not really that far off in my assumption. As I believe that most of you reading this realize.
Fact is, prior to 1968, the government didn't require manufacturers to keep a record of how many guns they made via serial numbers, and any free American could just walk into a store and buy one like a bag of flour.
I've even heard you could order them through the mail and have them delivered straight to your door without a background check. [ad nauseum]
Well, because you could.
But after Kennedy was killed, there was a lot of Congressional discussion about the topic of that, so the politicians felt that they needed to act. Make it harder for the next Lee Oswald to get his gun to keep them safer.
But back to the subject and so I don't go off on a tangent of why's and how's that led up to it, you're welcome to do your own research.
Ghost guns.
The term would roughly be defined as: "guns the government doesn't have records of".
OK, so the government doesn't have a paper trail of who made the gun or who currently owns the gun.
OK, let's dust off the critical thinking skills portion of our brains for a minute.
Prior to 1968, guns weren't required to have a serial number. And no one really knows how many guns are in the USA anyway.
And since firearms have been brought into the continental US since at least the 1500's (actually prior) that would be about 500 years of firearms that have been made or imported without government oversight from all the people and standing armies who came to America that brought their arms with them?
I wonder how many blacksmiths toiled over their forges and made guns? There have been literally hundreds, if not thousands of small firearm companies that sprung up in the late 1850's to present alone.
Most making only one model or two that didn't really catch on, and some that still continue to this day that have literally made millions of guns and even with multiple models and copies of such.
So; ghost guns.
At the heart of the matter, it's about "guns that the government doesn't know about". It's not that it's a matter of public safety. For that matter, the guns already exist. And as I have shown, some of them for hundreds of years, the gov't is not stopping them from being made because they already exist. They largely want universal registration of them.
Aside that I don't think it would seriously be enforceable, it would be a logistical nightmare. But politicians don't care about that. Heck, that's most political office in Washington DC or state capitals not only thrive on that, they depend on it.
Universal registration.
That's the ultimate end goal here.
This whole rant is because I wanted to bring a few things to your attention that you probably aren't aware of.
Since 1968, we've had to do background checks when we buy a gun. The manufacturers have to keep records of serial numbers, and which distributor or dealer they sold the gun to. Then the distributor or dealer has to keep a record of who they sold the gun to. It doesn't get fuzzy until after the consumer purchases it.
This is where the Gov't doesn't like it. The paper trail begins to cool at this point. Sort of, but not exactly.
The gov't requires the serial numbers be logged into the 4473 background check. Even on used guns (this is important and I'll explain why in a minute).
This allows the fed's to get the paper trail hot again. Let's their hound dogs get a whiff of where that gun is now and gives them a starting point again.
See, the gov't can inspect a gun dealers records once a year without a warrant. Just call and say "John, we're going to drop by sometime Wednesday evening and look through your stuff". And at any time while you are licensed, they can call and demand to know if you sold such and such gun, and to who. You have a very short amount of time you have to respond to those "requests".
OK, fast forward to the end of the business. All those records that you have accumulated. All those bound books that list each gun. Where it came from. Where it went. What happens to all of those?
Those go to the National Licensing Center.
The what?
The National Licensing Center.
Where the ATF retains the records indefinitely. They have even ran out of storage space for all of those records and have had to resort to storing them offsite in large shipping containers.
Why?
So they can find the guns serial numbers, and who the owner(s) of it have been. Old school style because Congress has made laws that prohibit a GUN REGISTRY.
So, by keeping the records, in my opinion, they are violating the law in doing so.
I ask that you read this short article. If it doesn't raise eyebrows and concern you, you've not been paying close enough attention.
Please read the link below. It is rather eye opening, and for those that don't like to read, they have pictures.
https://www.npr.org/2013/05/20/185530763/the-low-tech-way-guns-get-traced
So why the recent cry about "ghost guns"? Because the gov't doesn't know who made or owns them. It's that simple.
While it is completely legal for anyone who is not prohibited from owning a firearm to make their own firearm, they are twisting the reason behind their motives, which is universal registration.
Since we all know just how reliable government web pages are, I want to make a few screenshots from the ATF concerning a person being allowed to make their own if they chose to.
Well, I'm not really that far off in my assumption. As I believe that most of you reading this realize.
Fact is, prior to 1968, the government didn't require manufacturers to keep a record of how many guns they made via serial numbers, and any free American could just walk into a store and buy one like a bag of flour.
I've even heard you could order them through the mail and have them delivered straight to your door without a background check. [ad nauseum]
Well, because you could.
But after Kennedy was killed, there was a lot of Congressional discussion about the topic of that, so the politicians felt that they needed to act. Make it harder for the next Lee Oswald to get his gun to keep them safer.
But back to the subject and so I don't go off on a tangent of why's and how's that led up to it, you're welcome to do your own research.
Ghost guns.
The term would roughly be defined as: "guns the government doesn't have records of".
OK, so the government doesn't have a paper trail of who made the gun or who currently owns the gun.
OK, let's dust off the critical thinking skills portion of our brains for a minute.
Prior to 1968, guns weren't required to have a serial number. And no one really knows how many guns are in the USA anyway.
And since firearms have been brought into the continental US since at least the 1500's (actually prior) that would be about 500 years of firearms that have been made or imported without government oversight from all the people and standing armies who came to America that brought their arms with them?
I wonder how many blacksmiths toiled over their forges and made guns? There have been literally hundreds, if not thousands of small firearm companies that sprung up in the late 1850's to present alone.
Most making only one model or two that didn't really catch on, and some that still continue to this day that have literally made millions of guns and even with multiple models and copies of such.
So; ghost guns.
At the heart of the matter, it's about "guns that the government doesn't know about". It's not that it's a matter of public safety. For that matter, the guns already exist. And as I have shown, some of them for hundreds of years, the gov't is not stopping them from being made because they already exist. They largely want universal registration of them.
Aside that I don't think it would seriously be enforceable, it would be a logistical nightmare. But politicians don't care about that. Heck, that's most political office in Washington DC or state capitals not only thrive on that, they depend on it.
Universal registration.
That's the ultimate end goal here.
This whole rant is because I wanted to bring a few things to your attention that you probably aren't aware of.
Since 1968, we've had to do background checks when we buy a gun. The manufacturers have to keep records of serial numbers, and which distributor or dealer they sold the gun to. Then the distributor or dealer has to keep a record of who they sold the gun to. It doesn't get fuzzy until after the consumer purchases it.
This is where the Gov't doesn't like it. The paper trail begins to cool at this point. Sort of, but not exactly.
The gov't requires the serial numbers be logged into the 4473 background check. Even on used guns (this is important and I'll explain why in a minute).
This allows the fed's to get the paper trail hot again. Let's their hound dogs get a whiff of where that gun is now and gives them a starting point again.
See, the gov't can inspect a gun dealers records once a year without a warrant. Just call and say "John, we're going to drop by sometime Wednesday evening and look through your stuff". And at any time while you are licensed, they can call and demand to know if you sold such and such gun, and to who. You have a very short amount of time you have to respond to those "requests".
OK, fast forward to the end of the business. All those records that you have accumulated. All those bound books that list each gun. Where it came from. Where it went. What happens to all of those?
Those go to the National Licensing Center.
The what?
The National Licensing Center.
Where the ATF retains the records indefinitely. They have even ran out of storage space for all of those records and have had to resort to storing them offsite in large shipping containers.
Why?
So they can find the guns serial numbers, and who the owner(s) of it have been. Old school style because Congress has made laws that prohibit a GUN REGISTRY.
So, by keeping the records, in my opinion, they are violating the law in doing so.
I ask that you read this short article. If it doesn't raise eyebrows and concern you, you've not been paying close enough attention.
Please read the link below. It is rather eye opening, and for those that don't like to read, they have pictures.
https://www.npr.org/2013/05/20/185530763/the-low-tech-way-guns-get-traced
So why the recent cry about "ghost guns"? Because the gov't doesn't know who made or owns them. It's that simple.
While it is completely legal for anyone who is not prohibited from owning a firearm to make their own firearm, they are twisting the reason behind their motives, which is universal registration.
Since we all know just how reliable government web pages are, I want to make a few screenshots from the ATF concerning a person being allowed to make their own if they chose to.