Denver City Attorney Kristin Bronson, along with the support of Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, have decided that ghost guns are the next big thing to ban. Those are firearms made at home using software and 3-D printers to provide the working pieces of a firearm that can be turned into an operational firearm.
Said Bronson, without sourcing her claim, on Wednesday:
Cities across America are seeing a dramatic increase in the number of crimes involving ghost guns, and Denver is not immune.
A person who would otherwise be banned from purchasing a gun legally — an underage teen, a felon, or someone under a red flag order — can currently evade gun laws by purchasing non-serialized parts or ghost gun kits.
Denver Assistant City Attorney Reginald Nubine chimed in, telling the Denver Post that ghost guns are “problematic” because buyers don’t undergo a background check or meet minimum-age requirements in order to buy a firearm. And that, said Nubine, means that law-enforcement officials cannot trace the gun’s original owner because they lack that crucial identifier.
Just how large is the problem of ghost guns in Denver? The DPD reports that since November 2019 they have seized 1,907 firearms relating to various crimes. They report that of those, just 38 were so-called ghost guns.
That’s two percent.
Bronson admits that ghost guns aren’t a significant problem, but says the council should move ahead with the infringement of Second Amendment rights anyway: “While our numbers aren’t that high, ghost guns are being used to commit crimes in Denver and we are trying to get ahead of the curve.”
The City Council voted unanimously to proceed in crafting a bill that meets with Bronson’s approval: possession, use, or making of a ghost gun will cause the miscreant to face up to 300 days in jail and a $999 fine.
Members of the City Council are all in agreement that such legislation is necessary to “ward off” the steady advance of ghost guns showing up at crime scenes. One of them, Councilman Paul Kashmann, said, “It’s kind of scary to think how easy it is for our talented kids to put together weapons in the privacy of their homes, so we’re moving forward as quickly as possible.”
Ghost guns reflect the best of the black market — the free market — at work, successfully circumventing efforts at every level — state, federal, and local — to learn where every firearm is and who owns them. A gun registry is a necessary first step toward confiscation.
But if the governing authorities don’t know where they are and who owns them, they can’t take them.
That’s the real agenda, as most people familiar with the war against guns know about the war on freedom that has been going on for decades.
Gun crime statistics, real or imagined or created, are used by venal politicians as cover for their real agenda. Just to review: Most violent crimes are not committed using a firearm. When crimes are committed using a firearm, law enforcement usually learns that it was stolen, or purchased on the black market. Those criminals find it much easier and cheaper to buy one or to steal one than to build one.
Politicians will falsely state that one “can build a ghost gun for under $400” using online software available for free, watching tutorials on YouTube, and investing a few hours of their time. Almost never is the cost of a 3-D printer factored into the equation — they start at around $1000. What criminal would go to the trouble, even if he had the cash, time, the inclination, and the skills, when he can purchase a gun for a few hundred dollars or some drugs from his friends?
This exposes the soft underbelly of the anti-ghost gun — and the anti-gun — argument. No matter how many laws are passed — background checks, age requirements, etc. — criminals will still have access to firearms, just as people still have access to drugs despite all the drug laws on the books.
The real target is the law-abiding citizen reacting to the increase in infringements on his right to keep and bear — and make at home, if he cares to — firearms, the right guaranteed under the Second Amendment.
Denver’s city attorney — in the state of Colorado, now turned bright blue with the influx of Californians and others from blue states — is pushing on an already open door. Expect the City Council to dance to her tune, pass a law prohibiting ghost-gun possession, use, and manufacture, and expect nothing to change. Except this: As pressure builds against the Second Amendment, law-abiding citizens will increasingly exercise their freedom to build their firearms at home, defeating the purpose of the law the Denver City Council will shortly pass.
