80 Percent Arms GST-9 Mod 1 Completed (image courtesy JWT for thetruthaboutguns.com)
80 Percent Arms GST-9 Mod 1 Completed (image courtesy JWT for thetruthaboutguns.com)

Sen. Justin Ready, a Carroll County Republican, said he’s skeptical that banning ghost guns would make a dent in violent crime. He suggested that those with violent intentions who are determined to get their hands on untraceable guns still will find a way to do so.

“I would have a lot more respect for these gun control groups if they came in strong supporting the bills cracking down on the people that commit violent acts,” said Ready, who supports tougher sentences for certain gun crimes and has been trying to make theft of a firearm a felony.

Hobbyist gun owners could get caught up in the ban and risk losing their ability to buy firearms forever, said Mark Pennak, president of the advocacy group Maryland Shall Issue.

“What we can’t have is the General Assembly passing laws that threaten to send away and permanently disqualify law-abiding people, when the state’s attorneys — particularly in Baltimore — don’t enforce these laws,” Pennak said in an interview.

If lawmakers insist on banning ghost guns, then they at least could improve the grandfathering provision, Pennak said. He suggests following California’s procedure, which requires ghost gun owners to send to the state information about the gun and the owner’s eligibility to own one. The state then sends the gun owner a serial number that has to be engraved or otherwise permanently marked on the weapon.

Better yet, Pennak said, the state should wait for the adoption of federal regulations proposed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that would define the most common ghost gun kits as firearms. That’s likely to significantly curtail the sale of gun kits online.

53 COMMENTS

  1. I am sure the state’s attorneys will enforce this particular law, un like the laws against violent crime.

    • Worked great up here in NY! (at this point the sarcasm is pooling in the basement eating into the foundation)

    • As previously stated by government leaders in the state of Maryland.
      “People should be allowed room to destroy.”

      So yes, certain criminals will not be arrested. Because what they are doing is no longer considered a crime here. And those are the wishes of the Libertarians the Liberals and the left.
      And as far as I’m concerned our national divorce can’t come fast enough.

    • My fudd son lives in Maryland with his wife & my granddaughters. He’d applaud this…Baltimore is a cesspool.

  2. How have we allowed our governments to reach the point where so many elected officials cannot even understand the simple English words: “…shall not be infringed.”?

    • Its not that they don’t understand it, they just try to reinterpret it in any way that allows them to pass unconstitutional laws. Basically, they just don’t care what the constitution says and just want to do whatever they want.

    • well half of them plus can’t understand “Need ID to vote and make voting secure!”

      or just as many “Borders should be enforced and illegal aliens sent packing within a day of capture!”

    • ” so many elected officials cannot even understand the simple English words: “…shall not be infringed.”? ”

      Oh, they understand it perfectly well. That’s why they are so hell-bent on trying to destroy it.

  3. Without a Federal Law the Maryland new law would be useless as states with lax laws will ship in guns to Maryland via the “Iron Pipeline” the greatest source of guns for criminals and lunatics.

    Vietnam proverb: (which is fitting here for Capitalvania.)

    A Scorpion asked a frog if he would give him a ride on his back across the Mekong River. The Frog at first said no and told the scorpion that he was afraid he would sting him and kill him. The Scorpion said that his fears were unfounded because if he stung the Frog they would both drown crossing the river. The Frog then reluctantly agreed and half way across the river the Scorpion stung the Frog. The Frog said “Why did you do this now we will both drown, it made no sense”! The Scorpion replied “Yes I know it made no sense but this is Vietnam”.

    Much the same is true with the lack of sane gun laws in Capitalvania. None of it makes any sense to anyone who is sane.

    • You idiot, its not a Vietnam proverb. Its a moral story variation derived from Mahatma Gandhi who invented a unique variation on the prisoner’s dilemma with a game but the story does not portray a prisoner’s dilemma. The story goes like this:

      A scorpion and a frog meet on the bank of a stream and the scorpion asks the frog to carry him across on its back. The frog asks, “How do I know you won’t sting me?” The scorpion says, “Because if I do, I will die too.” The frog is satisfied, and they set out, but in midstream, the scorpion stings the frog. The frog feels the onset of paralysis and starts to sink, knowing they both will drown, but has just enough time to gasp “Why?” Replies the scorpion: “Its my nature…”

      The moral: The frog has absolutely nothing to gain by carrying the scorpion across, and is therefore a foolish altruist, proving the truth of the adage, “No good deed goes unpunished.”

        • and… the basic story is attributed in different forms to a collection of Aesop’s fables prior to the 20th century. This version with a frog and scorpion was derived in variation from from Mahatma Gandhi prisoners dilemma game he played with the British and its first known appearance is in the 1933 Russian novel, The German Quarter by Lev Nitoburg.

        • To Booger Brain

          As usual in your idiotic desperation for “one upmanship” you missed the whole point of the analogy and it was not where or when or who originally told the story. All this proves it is you who are the fking Moron. Try again you never cease to make a complete fool of yourself

          And by the way Moron the story was very famous and well known during the Vietnam War.

          The following proves no one really knows how old or who was the original author of the story. And the history of Vietnam predates even Aesop.

          Aesop. The Scorpion and the Frog is sometimes attributed to Aesop as its true author is unknown, though it does not appear in any collection of Aesop’s fables prior to the 20th century.

          Vietnam has one of the oldest and most continuous histories of any nation. The area has been inhabited by some of the world’s earliest societies. The needs to control flooding along the Red River and fight off invaders caused the inhabitants to form one cohesive government early on in 2879 BC.

          Try again Booger Brain you once again made a fool of yourself. Stay out of history classes you flunked them all anyway.

        • That dacian cat is one fcked up person.
          It tells a story , adds Vietnam , then when called on it ,calls the commenter a idiot moron because “It’s” Vietnam version doesn’t matter.
          Dont spill the masters tea dacian.

  4. A PARTIAL LIST OF LUNATICS AND CRIMINALS WHO BUILT GHOST GUNS AND USED THEM IN CRIME OR MASS MURDERS.

    Are ghost guns frequently used in violent crime?????????????????????????

    Yes, ghost guns are increasing being used in shootings across the country.

    In July 2020, an individual who was prohibited from possessing guns allegedly murdered two people in Pennsylvania using a homemade 9mm handgun.9

    In November 2019, a 16-year-old shot five of his classmates at Saugus High School in California—two of them fatally—using a homemade handgun, before fatally shooting himself.10

    In August 2019, a shooter used a homemade gun kit to build a .223-caliber firearm that he later used to fire 41 shots in 32 seconds in a bar in Dayton, Ohio, shooting 26 people and killing nine.11

    In 2017, in Northern California, a man prohibited from possessing firearms ordered kits to build AR-15-style rifles. On November 13, he initiated a series of shootings that began with fatally shooting his wife at home, followed by a rampage the next day during which he fired at multiple people in several different locations, including an elementary school, killing five people and injuring dozens more.12

    In 2013, a shooter opened fire in Santa Monica, California, shooting 100 rounds, killing five people, and injuring several others at a community college using a homemade AR-15 rifle. Reporting indicates the shooter had previously tried to purchase a firearm from a licensed gun dealer and failed a background check, potentially indicating why he opted to order parts to build a gun instead.13

    Law enforcement officials around the country are sounding the alarm about the dramatic increase in the recovery of ghost guns at crime scenes in their communities. ATF reported that approximately 10,000 ghost guns were recovered across the country in 2019.14 Ghost guns have also been illegally trafficked to Mexico.15 In addition:

    In 2019, Washington, D.C., police recovered 115 ghost guns, a 360 percent increase from 2018, when they recovered 25 ghost guns, and a 3,733 percent increase from 2017, when only three such firearms were recovered.16

    In 2019, ATF reported recovering 117 ghost guns in Maryland with almost 25 percent recovered from Baltimore alone. Ghost gun recoveries in the state then tripled in 2020.17
    According to law enforcement in Philadelphia, ghost gun recoveries in that city rose 152 percent from 2019 to 2020.18

    The special agent in charge of the ATF Los Angeles Field Division reported in January 2021 that 41 percent of the division’s cases involve ghost guns, and a May 2019 statewide analysis in California found that 30 percent of all guns recovered in connection with a crime in the state did not have serial numbers.19

    In addition, an investigation by The Trace found that ghost guns are increasingly becoming the weapon of choice for violent white supremacists and anti-government extremists.20

    In conclusion the ATF is a law unto itself and as in the past it rules at 8:00 AM and it is then a new “regulation” (disingenuous term for new law) is now the law of the land at 5:00 PM.

    No Judge Conservative or Liberal will declare the ATF ruling illegal or Unconstitutional because ghost guns are a danger to the people of the country and even the much ballyhooed Scalia decision with the usual double talk and smoke and mirrors declared “The Courts had the right to regulate firearms” (slick disingenuous term for ban or restrict firearms).

    In conclusion your right to own a weapon rests with the rulings of the courts, not the Constitution, and history has proven this reality like it or not.

    No sane person would want ghost guns legal and no other civilized nation tolerates them.

        • Getae, an ancient people of Thracian origin, inhabiting the banks of the lower Danube region and nearby plains. First appearing in the 6th century BC, the Getae were subjected to Scythian influence and were known as expert mounted archers and devotees of the deity Zalmoxis. Although the daughter of their king became the wife of Philip II of Macedon in 342 BC, the Macedonians under Philip II’s son Alexander crossed the Danube and burned the Getic capital seven years later. Getic technology was influenced by that of the invading Celts in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC. Under Burebistas (fl. lst century BC), the Getae and nearby Dacians formed a powerful but short-lived state. By the middle of the following century, when the Romans had gained control over the lower Danube region, thousands of Getae were displaced, and, not long thereafter, references to the Getae disappeared from history. Later writers wrongly gave the name Getae to the Goths.

          The Getae and DACIANS were closely related; some historians even suggest that these were names applied to a single people by different observers or at different times.*******

          No doubt they allowed the government to regulate them out of existence

        • How old were you when your mother left you in one of those Romanian baby hells that they called orphanages?

      • He was dropped on his head a lot as a child. He is still dropped on his head a lot now that he’s not a child. All this being dropped on his head has resulted in his emotional confirmation bias and lack of reading comprehension skills, like, you know, a small child would have.

      • His father and mother were never even formally introduced . . . and the “best” part of this pathetic loser ran down his mommy’s crack and left a brown stain on the mattress.

    • so with so called modern ghost guns being available in some way for WELL over a decade and the OLD ones being out there for over 200 years
      you couldn’t even find a dozen crimes to list?

      sad way to state your point where a stolen gun would have been used anyway by ‘joe criminal’

    • Do have that text ready to copy-and-paste? I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve seen it.

      You might get paid by the word but I think your benefactor may want new content and not the same stuff repeated ad-infinitum.

      • quote—————Do have that text ready to copy-and-paste? I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve seen it.—————quote

        When dealing with the low mentality of the Far Right they have to be told about it many times before any info sinks in through their very thick craniums as their direct ancestors were traced to be a hybrid of both Neanderthal and Denisovan lineage and appear to be still in the evolutionary stage of proto-human development.

      • For the last several months, and may be as much as six months, you’ve mentioned the same cases over and over again. With the resources of your fat cave, err bat cave (basement), surely you could find some more recent examples.

        While those events are individual tragedies among 350 million people and (low estimate) 500+ million guns, they are statistically irrelevant.

        Politically I would describe myself as a centrist but on your spectrum that would be a raging Hitlerite.

        • quote——they are statistically irrelevant.————quote

          First of all that was only a partial list. You conveniently ignored that fact.

          And you proved what I have said over and over again the Far Right is so sick in the head that with a wave of the hand they say “losses can never be too high because I will not be inconvenienced with any paperwork that would keep guns out of the hands of lunatics and criminals.

          And by the way Herr Hauptman if you mouthed off that nonsense of “who cares” to a family who had lost someone to a ghost gun I would not want to be in your shoes. I doubt if you would get out of the room in once piece.

        • You have to update the list. Even if you doubled the list entries it would be an insignificant percentage of the number of gun built from near finished receivers, parts kits, and even ground up builds. ATF would approve AK receiver flats made for commercial sale but people still made their own from scrap metal and even old shovels. AR lower receivers have been machined from billets or even cast from scrap. The number of guns made from various hobbyist sources would number in the hundreds of thousands minimum.

        • The families of the victims need to realize there is a difference between justice and vengeance. In grief people will lash out and blame anyone and everyone they think is remotely connected even to the absolutely infinitesimal degree. Even moreso if the guilty has offed themselves and is beyond earthly justice.

      • He doesn’t get paid by the work. He’s a true believer AND an over-educated idiot.

        And fairly mentally ill as well. It takes a lot of effort to write all this crap knowing most won’t read it and no minds at all will be changed here.

    • No one willing to murder another individual, which is all we should be worried about, will be deterred by a law saying they can’t make something.

    • dacian the stupid,

      1. Define “Ghost guns”, and cite the LEGISLATION that definition is taken from;
      2. List ALL LEO that utilize that definition in reporting;
      3. List ALL LEO that use OTHER definitions than that;
      4. TRY to remember that the plural of “anecdote” is NOT “data”;
      5. Go find the cable.

      dacian, you are simply too stupid to insult.

  5. Yes. Only the mystical talisman that is the holiest of holys serial number can protect us from certain death.

    All hail the serial number. Saving lives and solving crimes since…….well……..not sure ever but they must serve some purpose, right?

    Maybe try going after all the ghost narcotics?
    Ooh, maybe since they lack a super special and wholly infallible social security number illegals are actually ghost people?

    • I’m pretty sure serial numbers were added to firearms in order to allow those stolen to be returned to their owners. Just how they are supposed to decrease criminal actions, I cannot imagine.

  6. I am so old I remember when Maryland was in America. Sooner or later one party rule turns a place into a Soviet style police state. Maryland politicians are inspired by European nations, primarily East Germany, as it was in 1975.

  7. As with anything, the government inflates numbers as they include firearms who have had their serial numbers removed and list them as “ghost guns”….As far as what other nations do, I don’t give a crap. In all their infinite wisdom they go after law abiding citizens while looking the other way at actual criminals. Oh, and quoting The Trace? Yeah, let’s look to an uber-leftist rag who despises the Constitution.

  8. Stealing a gunm in Kansas is a non person felony. I guess that’s good, just confused on non person felony, ask the guy that got his gunm stole, that seems a little personal to me.

  9. So some home built firearm is now more deadly than a stolen or otherwise illegally obtained weapon? Don’t forget people have been building firearms at home for their own use since before the US was even an idea. Just my thoughts here, but, I’m less concerned about how or where someone got or built a firearm, than what they do with said firearm. No law, regulation, or ban will ever stop someone who has chosen to commit murder. Nor will any law prevent some fool from deciding they would rather steal and rob instead of work for a living or earn something. The only thing that stops such crimes is locking away those who commit such crimes. And making the punishment fit the crime. Punish those who would harm others and stop punishing those who are just trying to live their lives.

  10. A ban on “Ghost guns” will not affect crime in anyway. Has nothing to do with crime as long as Political corruption and crazy left wing policies remain. This is nothing but lip service with the real goal is gun control, simple as that.

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