Are ‘Ghost Guns’ a Threat?

It figures that sooner or later there would be a high-profile shooting involving the use of what is called a ‘ghost gun,’ which would then provoke a whole debate about whether we should allow people to own home-made guns, a debate in which both sides get it completely and totally wrong.

The term ‘ghost gun’ refers to a gun which doesn’t have a unique serial number, which has been required since 1968 on all guns sold or transferred from one person to another in the United States.

The government has never imposed any restrictions on keeping a gun around the house that someone makes themselves, the assumption being (I guess) that anyone who makes a gun at home isn’t going to use it in an illegal way. Yea, right.

But the moment that someone gives or sells a gun to someone else, this transaction then turns this piece of equipment into a product which has to be regulated in terms of how it is used and by whom.

The gun-control people of course want to restrict or ban these products for the simple reason that when they hear the word ‘gun’ they know that we need to keep such items out of everyone’s hands, or at least make it more difficult for someone to get their hands on such an item because sooner or later it will be used to commit a crime.