CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A group of mayors from across the country, including eight from North Carolina, met with lawmakers in Washington, D.C. today to talk about what is called, ghost guns.
Ghost guns are guns made from individually obtained parts, but they do not have serial numbers and can’t be traced.
Charlotte gun shop owner Larry Hyatt said building a gun from parts is legal.
“You can build your own gun for your own personal use, just like you can make your own beer or wine, but you can’t resell it,” Hyatt said.
The problem facing law enforcement though is some of these unregistered and untraceable firearms are turning up at crime scenes.
In November of 2019, a teenager used a homemade handgun to kill two classmates and wound three others.
It was a .45-caliber replica pistol assembled from parts with no serial number.
On the internet, it is not hard to find companies that sell gun parts. There are even videos and instructions on how to assemble a weapon from the parts.
Some require more skill than others and some people even have used a 3-D printer to create the “receiver,” the part that is the essence of the gun with its critical components.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police in a statement said, “Firearms built through kits do not necessarily identify themselves through markings, so it is not searchable by us under query.”
Larry Hyatt says his shop sells parts for guns but not the critical pieces to make the finished product a usable firearm.
The mayors who traveled to Washington are concerned about the fact that on-line sellers of parts do not require any sort of background check before putting the parts in the mail.