House passes bill allowing criminals to access new class of ghost guns 

WASHINGTON — GIFFORDS, the national gun violence prevention organization founded by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, condemned the Republicans and Democrats who supported House passage of H.R. 2189, the Law-Enforcement Innovate to De-Escalate Act, a bill to allow dangerous weapons to be sold to criminals otherwise prohibited from owning firearms. Despite the deceptive bill name, the legislation is not focused on law enforcement — in fact, Republicans unanimously defeated an amendment to explicitly focus the legislation on law enforcement. Here’s the bottom line: it removes the background check requirement from an entire class of weapons that can be easily modified into guns.

Exempting these devices from basic public safety requirements creates a dangerous loophole for prohibited persons — such as individuals with felony or domestic violence convictions — to access deadly weapons, creating a new legal market for untraceable weapons. The bill neither prohibits nor penalizes the modification of these devices into lethal weapons, effectively creating a new class of “ghost gun” and deregulating firearm access even for prohibited individuals. Additionally, domestic violence survivors warn the bill ignores how these weapons have been used in brutal assaults. The bill would allow domestic abusers barred from owning guns to access tasers and other less lethal projectile weapons to terrorize victims, no questions asked.

“The House just voted to legalize a new class of ghost guns. This bill is a giveaway for corporate interests, and if it became law, would give convicted domestic abusers access to deadly firearms they couldn’t otherwise buy,” said GIFFORDS Executive Director Emma Brown. “Under the guise of increasing law enforcement access to less-than-lethal technology, this bill makes it completely legal for shady gun companies to sell weapons that are easily converted into firearms that fire live ammunition.” 

“This bill is a wish come true for domestic abusers and other criminals who want to evade background checks and still own a gun. It makes all of us less safe. We urge the Senate to block this obviously flawed legislation, because if it doesn’t, lives will be lost across the country,” Brown added.

Given the long history of modifying weapons to make them more dangerous, it’s expected that the gun industry will seize on this dangerous definitional change to produce “less-than-lethal projectile devices” that can be sold without a background check and be easily modified to be a fully lethal firearm. For the last decade, the gun industry used ambiguity in the existing regulation of firearms to create a market for unfinished frames and receivers, as well as kits to finish assembling them, which were the basis for the ghost gun market before the ATF promulgated a rule to regulate them as firearms.