Giffords Celebrates Passage of Bipartisan Ghost Guns Bill in Maryland
After four years of advocacy, legislation to ban unserialized and untraceable “ghost guns” passes with bipartisan support in the legislature
Washington, DC — Giffords, the gun violence prevention organization founded by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, lauded Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, Senate President Bill Ferguson, Speaker Adrienne Jones, Senator Susan Lee, and Delegate Lesley Lopez on the passage of SB 387 & HB 425, legislation that bans ghost guns in Maryland.
Attorney General Frosh, Senator Lee, and Delegate Lopez authored strong legislation to prohibit these untraceable weapons and track the parts used to make them. We are appreciative that Governor Hogan chose to protect families from illegal, untraceable firearms by choosing not to veto this legislation.
“Ghost guns present a clear and present danger to national security and public safety,” said David Chipman, Giffords Senior Policy Advisor. “These untraceable, DIY firearms are increasingly being used to commit violent crimes and law enforcement is left with little to no information to investigate. Maryland’s legislative leaders worked across both sides of the aisle and demonstrated the leadership necessary to reduce gun violence. Other states should follow their lead.”
“Ghost guns have posed a rising threat for years, supplying the illegal gun market and undermining the most basic gun safety laws,” said David Pucino, Giffords Law Center Deputy Chief Counsel. “By passing this critical legislation, the legislature made a powerful commitment to stop the proliferation of these deadly weapons and took an important step to stem the tide of violence. We are grateful to the legislature for their commitment and to Governor Hogan for doing the right thing and allowing the bill to become law.”
Ghost guns are untraceable by law enforcement and can be obtained without a background check. These guns pose a grave threat to public safety, and people who are legally prohibited from owning firearms are able to access them in most states. The threat to public safety is particularly severe in Maryland, and growing worse by the day.
In late summer of 2019, police recovered a loaded ghost gun equipped with a high-capacity magazine from a man also charged with drug trafficking. In December of 2019, a ghost gun trafficker was sentenced in Montgomery County after supplying ghost guns to organized crime members and other persons prohibited from possessing a firearm.
In 2020 the Washington Post reported that police in Baltimore and suburban Maryland have said “they are seeing more of the weapons.” And in a 2020 investigation, Fox45 News Operation: Crime & Justice found that sales of ghost gun kits to Maryland quadrupled over a four-year period, with over 12,000 kits representing more than a million dollars sold from 2016 through 2019. That same investigation also found that the number of ghost guns recovered from crimes was sharply increasing, with particular spikes in Prince George’s County and Baltimore.
That trend has continued throughout the pandemic, as ghost guns are used more and more frequently in horrific acts of violence. Just two months ago, a teenager in Montgomery County shot a classmate in a school bathroom with a ghost gun he built from parts he ordered online.
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