A Field Guide to Ghost Guns

While it has always been legal for a citizen in the United States to manufacture their own firearm, the sale and distribution of such items is illegal under current U.S. law. The primary impediment to individuals making their own weapons has been access to the tooling and machinery required to convert raw materials into finished parts for assembly. However, in the last fifteen years this paradigm has changed drastically. Home builders and companies have emerged to support individuals who choose to produce their own firearm. Kits with receivers and gun components are available for hobbyists, as are 3-D printable gun designs, downloadable from the Internet in some cases. This phenomenon has led to the term ghost guns: firearms whose existence is not reported to any third party and therefore whose existence is unknown and, largely, untraceable.
Read more