According to Firearm Chronicles
California loves them some gun control. It doesn’t actually work, of course, but they love it none the less. Then again, this is a state where their governor has decided to ban gasoline-powered cars, despite the impact that will have on poor people in many parts of the state that lack a large public transit system. They seem to like authoritarianism there.
And honestly, while it’s a topic of debate, it doesn’t bother me all that much. After all, I don’t live there so their nonsense doesn’t impact me.
Now, though, a new lawsuit out of the state may well impact the rest of us and our gun rights.
Fed up with the growing number of untraceable homemade firearms used in gun crimes and mass shootings, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced a federal lawsuit Tuesday to force the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to crack down on so-called “ghost guns” that skirt laws requiring background checks and age verification.
Lacking a commercial serial number and purchasable without a background check, “ghost guns” are not considered firearms subject to ATF regulation under the Gun Control Act because a central piece remains unfinished — the receiver or frame of the weapon, which houses all of its internal components including the barrel and trigger mechanism.
Becerra disputes this interpretation. His lawsuit notes the Gun Control Act expressly provides that a receiver or frame can be considered a firearm because such pieces are “designed to or may readily be converted” into functional weapons.
“We are suing the ATF over its interpretation what qualifies as a firearm,” Becerra said on a call with reporters Tuesday. “ATF allows these guns to go unchecked despite having the authority under the Gun Control Act to regulate them.”
These are less than 80 percent complete receivers. That last 20 percent hardly qualifies as “readily be converted,” as anyone who has built such a firearm knows.
However, Becerra doesn’t actually care about that. He simply doesn’t want people to be able to build their own firearms for any reason.
It should be noted that building these weapons is actually legal in his own state, though there are regulations surrounding their manufacture. If they’re legal in California, why is he trying to shut it down for the rest of the country? Probably because he’s bucking for higher office and this is how he can show he’s tough on guns.
Becerra isn’t alone on this, though.
He was joined by Bryan Muehlberger, whose daughter Gracie Anne Muehlberger was shot and killed at Saugus High school in Santa Clarita, California, by a fellow student with a “ghost gun” assembled from an online kit.
“Until that tragic day, I had never even heard of a ghost gun,” Muehlberger said. “We all need to wake up and understand the danger here. Anyone, and I mean anyone, can buy these totally unregulated kits with just an internet connection and a credit card. And that’s how my daughter’s killer got his murder weapon. I still struggle to understand why it can be so easy to order a kit online that has no intended purpose other than creating a fully functioning firearm and how the ATF can allow ghost guns to be sold with no federal regulation.”