“Ghost Guns” in North Carolina
BY Herschel Smith2 years, 6 months ago
Oooo … an Ashville MSM journalist writes a breathless article about ghost guns. We should all be askeerd.
“In the case of the pistols here that you see, these were all purchased in undercover investigations by ATF,” Mein said.
The area of the frame or receiver where a manufacturer is required to add crucial serial numbers on these kits is blank.
“Those markings give us the ability to trace that gun. By tracing the firearm, we’re finding out who manufactured it, who retail sold it and who the original purchaser is,” Mein said.
The firearms anonymity is driving up their presence at crime scenes.
Let’s stop right there. Firearms anonymity cannot possibly do or cause anything. Maybe they don’t teach journalism or logic in college any more.
If unserialized firearms (that’s what we should call them) are more prevalent than in years gone by, that could explain an increased prevalence in crime scenes. It would only stand to reason if the firearms at crime scenes are a cross section of the firearms in circulation.
As for the notion that serialization is “crucial,” that’s preposterous. Person-to-person sales are still legal and the work to trace a firearm all the way back to the original buyer means absolutely nothing. This is a raw ploy to scare the ignorant and easily scared into demanding laws against manufacture of their own weapons and person-to-person sales, and the ATF isn’t just going along with it all, I wouldn’t be surprised if the idea for the story came from them.
A federal rule change in April now makes those kits easier to trace. It will require serial numbers to be included on the frame or receiver. Sellers must also be licensed.
“It would provide that background screening,” King said.
Licensed manufacturer Phil Flack agreed serial numbers help investigators with cases.
“I think so, in one sense for the law enforcement community,” said Flack, owner of P.F. Custom Guns in Buncombe County.
Still, Flack continued, “The law has always allowed for individuals to manufacture their own firearms.”
He is worried new rules could impact enthusiasts and hobbyists more than criminals.
“If you’re going after somebody who’s not really a threat, what have you accomplished,” Flack said.
Phil, haven’t you learned how this works yet? Don’t talk to the press – nothing good can come of it.
Via correspondent Roger.
On May 15, 2022 at 9:20 pm, Fred said:
“The firearms anonymity is driving up their presence at crime scenes.”
Like you’ve pointed out upon occasion, Herschel, they believe in voodoo. They think an inanimate object can have some power of the actions of a man.
The reason they think this is not only because they haven’t been properly trained in reason and logic, I’m not, but also, they don’t know Christ. People who don’t know God will have a religion, every single one of them does. Being lost, they don’t know the source of good or evil and they don’t know that men ARE sinners, which is why they harm each other without cause.
I’ll say it again; guns are not inherently evil, they are inherently rusty as that is the foremost property they will “seek” to attain…until they disintegrate of course.
On May 16, 2022 at 2:15 pm, scott s. said:
I once did some research after reading some public health (I think maybe JHU) report that was based on trace data. The take-away I had was 1 only a fraction of firearms are traced and 2 the choice of which firearms get traced is not a random sample. I’ve never seen a study (by other than ATF tracers themselves who have obvious bias) of what value tracing has. I guess I could see maybe identifying straw purchase pattern, but I would think you need to recover and trace a lot of guns to do that to any significant degree.
I also question how much interest there is from criminals in assembling firearms versus obtaining in other ways. From what I see most interest is from RKBA folks who want to be “under the radar”. Maybe a few who are “prohibited persons” but not actually looking to commit crimes with firearm, or more likely avoiding firearms bans in certain states.
On May 16, 2022 at 2:28 pm, Red Man said:
The first 5 words of the article were enough for me, no need to read any more. Asheville? The Gay (Key) West or Provincetown of NC.