Speaking to the White House, Biden highlighted the Justice Department’s work to finalize new ghost control regulations and announced the candidacy of Steve Dettlebach, who served as U.S. attorney in Ohio from 2009 to 2016, to heads the Bureau of Alcohol. , Smoke, Firearms and Explosives. “Law enforcement is ringing the alarm bell,” Biden said of the ghost guns, holding one for a moment for cameras to see in Rose Garden. “Our communities are paying the price.” He promised that the new regulations would save lives. However, the gun announcement underscores Biden’s influence to push for a sweeping review of gun laws by Congress in response to both the recent rise in violent crime and the ongoing mass onslaught. Congress has been at a dead end on legislative reform legislation for a decade, and executive action has been met with strong winds in federal courts – although the Democratic base has become more vocal, urging Biden to take more consistent action. . Dettlebach’s confirmation is also likely to be a difficult battle. Biden was forced to withdraw the candidacy of his first ATF candidate, weapons control attorney David Chipman, after he was suspended for months due to opposition from Republicans and some Democrats in the Senate. Both the Republican and Democratic governments have failed to find candidates for the ATF position through the politically-charged process since the director’s post was confirmed in 2006. Since then, only one candidate, former U.S. Attorney B. Todd Jones, has been nominated. confirmed. Jones passed the Senate in 2013 but only after a six-month struggle. Jones was an acting director when he was nominated by President Barack Obama in January 2013. The Biden government’s plan for weapons was first reported by Politico. For almost a year, the ghost weapon rule has been making its way into the federal regulatory process. Armed security groups and Democrats in Congress have been pushing the Justice Department to end the rule for months. He is likely to face heavy resistance from arms groups and legal disputes will erupt in the coming weeks. Gun Owners of America vowed to fight the rule immediately. “As we oppose the Trump administration’s arbitrary ban on shares, the Australian government will also sue Biden’s ATF to stop enforcing the rule,” Aidan Johnston, the group’s director of federal affairs, said in a statement. The group believes the rule violates the US Constitution and several federal laws. But gun advocacy groups such as the Everytown for Gun Safety, which pushed the federal government for years to take action on ghost weapons, applauded Biden’s moves and insisted that both the Dettelbach appointment and the final rule will help fight armed violence. “Ghost guns look like guns, they shoot like guns and they kill like guns, but so far they have not been set up like guns,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown. Christian Heyne, vice president of politics at Brady, another weapons control group, said Dettlebach was “an unmistakable civil servant who has spent his career using government leverage to hold accountable negligent or obscene agents.” Statistics from the Ministry of Justice show that almost 24,000 ghost weapons were recovered by law enforcement agencies at crime scenes and reported to the government from 2016 to 2020. It is difficult to say how many are on the streets, in part because in many cases police sections Do not contact the government for weapons as they cannot be located. The new rule changes the current definition of a firearm in accordance with federal law to include incomplete parts, such as the frame of a weapon or the receiver of a long-range weapon. He says these components must be licensed and include serial numbers. Manufacturers should also conduct pre-sale history checks – as they do with other commercial firearms. The requirement applies regardless of how the firearm is made, which means that it includes ghost weapons made from individual components, kits or 3D printers. Federally licensed firearms dealers must maintain key records until they terminate their licensed business or activity and then transfer the files to the ATF, as they are currently required to do at the end of the licensed activity. Previously, these traffickers were allowed to destroy most records after 20 years, making it more difficult for law enforcement to locate firearms found at crime scenes. “A year ago, this week, as I was standing here with many of you, I commissioned the attorney general to write a regulation restricting the proliferation of ghost weapons because I had difficulty approving anything in Congress,” Biden said. The rule enters into force 120 days from the date of publication in the Federal Register. For years, federal officials have been sounding the alarm about a growing black market for makeshift military-style semi-automatic rifles and pistols. In addition to appearing more frequently at crime scenes, ghost guns are becoming more common when federal agents buy weapons in undercover operations from gang members and other criminals. Some states, such as California, have enacted laws in recent years that require serial numbers to be stamped on ghost weapons. Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Sapiro, who attended Monday’s White House event, applauded the move and showed a serious increase in the ghost weapons found by police. Philadelphia police have seen a nearly 500% increase in the number of ghost weapons found in the past two years, Shapiro said. And just last week, a police officer there was shot by an 18-year-old ghost holding a gun, which according to police had shot three others. “This gap has caused countless lives in our nation,” Shapiro said in an interview. “Today is a crucial step in closing this gap.” He said the move is likely to help fight violence and help both police and prosecutors bring their cases. The rule is also likely to help reduce the number of people who should not buy firearms before a gun falls into their hands, he said. “There are two challenges: First, criminals can easily buy them without going through a history check. “Both are non-serial and undetectable.” The crucial component for making an undetectable weapon is what is known as a lower receiver, a part usually made of metal or polymer. An incomplete receiver – sometimes referred to as an “80 percent receiver” – can be legally purchased online without serial numbers or other markings on it, without the need for a license. Police across the country have reported ghost gunshots recovered by police. The New York Police Department, for example, said police have found 131 firearms without serial numbers since January. A gunman who killed his wife and four others in Northern California in 2017 was banned from possessing firearms, but made his own to circumvent the court ruling before his outburst. And in 2019, a teenager used an improvised weapon to fatally shoot two classmates and injure three others at a school in a Los Angeles suburb. – AP writer Will Weissert contributed.
