Law Enforcement Members: Before Regulating ‘Ghost Guns,’ Enforce Existing Laws

A "ghost gun" is displayed before the start of an event about gun-related violence in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on April 11, 2022. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The proliferation of “ghost guns” at crime scenes is a problem, but not adequately prosecuting repeat offenders under the law is a much greater concern, and focusing on the latter will make a dent in violent crime, according to current and former law enforcement members.

Recently, the political wave to regulate ghost guns reached the White House, as President Joe Biden announced a new rule on April 11 to regulate such guns to fight violent crime.

“Ghost guns,” or privately made firearms, are often assembled by individuals from components that aren’t considered a firearm under current Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) regulations and thus don’t need to bear serial numbers or require background checks before purchase.

The new federal action follows similar regulatory moves that have advanced at the state and local levels, including Illinois, Maryland, and the city of Denver.

“If we are going to invest energy to fight crime, we should invest energy to get repeat offenders off the street,” Al Maresca, a deputy U.S. marshal in the District of Maryland, told The Epoch Times.

“Felon in possession of a gun is already illegal, a straw purchase is already illegal—there are all these other laws on the books that we can be focusing our efforts on.”

Maresca has worked in law enforcement for more than a decade, starting as a police officer in a New Jersey town, and then moving on to the Federal Bureau of Prisons before joining the U.S. Marshals Service.

A person walks past a police car in Baltimore, on July 28, 2019. Baltimore has a stubborn crime problem and has one of the highest murder rates in the nation for a city of any size. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

According to historian Ashely Hlebinsky, privately made guns have existed for hundreds of years and they were essential to the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War.

Today, assembling guns at home through parts or new technology such as 3D printing is mostly a hobby among gun enthusiasts, according to firearm expert Rob Pincus, who hosted the nation’s first shooting competition exclusively for privately made firearms last year.

“Private gunmaking is not a loophole. It is an American freedom,” Pincus said.

“All the regulations are really affecting is the legal, responsible gun owners, and you are adding a burden—a burden of cost and a burden of time—to his exercising that freedom,” he said.

Roberto Alaniz (Courtesy of Roberto Alaniz)

Roberto Alaniz, a recently retired sergeant from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), told The Epoch Times that regulating privately made firearms is like getting into a “niche market,” as opposed to targeting the “mainstream market” of gun-related violence.

“For me, it doesn’t matter if the gun is a ‘ghost gun’ or not, it is a gun, and the minute you start to use it to rob or kill, you should get consequences,” Alaniz said.

“We should punish the criminal behaviors, not the tools, to drive down crime.”

Alaniz worked at the LAPD for 40 years, including 12 years at Southwest station, which covers a high-crime area in the city, before he retired early this year.

He points to recent changes in Los Angeles policing and prosecution policies that make it harder to punish criminal behaviors accordingly, which he said deserve more attention than the so-called ghost guns.

For example, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón, who was elected in 2020 on a progressive platform, directed prosecutors in his office against seeking the death penalty, sentencing enhancements, or cash bail in nonviolent cases.

“Enhancement would be if you got arrested for robbery, and you used a weapon in that crime, you add a few more years to the sentence; and if that is a bad weapon, then you add a few more years,” Alaniz said.

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon is joined by a group of progressive district attorneys from around the country at the press conference to mark his first year in office, in Los Angeles, on Dec. 8, 2021. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)

As for policing, the LAPD in a new March policy limited the conditions under which officers could search cars for potential illegal guns or drugs during traffic stops.

That limits officers’ ability to get illegal guns off the street, especially in high-crime areas, Alaniz said.

While on the job, Alaniz did see a surge of privately made firearms since late 2020. He attributed it in part to new technologies that enable average persons without sophisticated gunsmith skills to make guns.

According to an ATF report, in 2020, 8,712 suspected privately made firearms were reported by local law enforcement agencies to ATF, accounting for about 2 percent of total firearms reported that year.

In 2016, 1,750 suspected privately made firearms were reported to ATF, accounting for less than 1 percent of total firearms reported that year.

Most law enforcement agencies, including those with a higher number of recoveries, said ghost gun prevalence was small relative to the number of traditionally manufactured firearms recovered, based on a survey of 24 agencies of various sizes and regions by the National Police Foundation last year.

Chicago police officer James Murray, on March 30, 2022. (Cara Ding/The Epoch Times)

Chicago police officer James Murray said it’s a good move to regulate privately made firearms, but he doesn’t think it will make a dent in violent crime. That’s because people arrested with illegal guns are not punished accordingly under the law, he said.

Murray has worked at the Chicago Police Department since 2003. For the past few years, he worked as a field training officer at the 15th district, a high-crime area on the city’s West Side.

“If guns are so bad, which they can be, then why not punish the offender more severely?” Murray said.

“That would definitely cut down on repeat offenders.”