Biden and Ghost Guns
Perfectly aware that he cannot get such a bill through Congress,
Biden is relying on executive actions that are susceptible to overturn should
an opponent win the next presidential election. Nevertheless, his remarks made
clear that he feels the White House must do something to rein in a growing
number of gun crimes across the country.
At the same time, he named Steve Dettelbach, a former U.S.
attorney from Ohio, as a replacement to head the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives agency after being forced to withdraw his earlier choice because of
unanimous Republican rejection of a candidate they saw as “anti-gun.”
With Republicans eyeing a return to majority in Congress in
November, this nomination may not fare much better. Guns are too rich a
political sloganeering platform.
Numbering Parts
If you’re going to pick a stand against guns, ghost guns seem a
relatively safe way to go; these proposed regulations don’t even eliminate
ghost guns. They merely requiring inclusion of manufacturing serial numbers on
the parts for better tracking. These are gun-assembly kits sent through the
mail that basically otherwise are untraceable as weapons. They can be produced
by 3-D plastic printers, complete with ammunition, unfindable by metal
detectors.
To anyone but a diehard gun defender, this is a class of weapons
that law enforcement and civilians alike find objectionable and dangerous.
Nevertheless, we can expect challenges in Congress and in the
courts to something “abridging” the perception that the Second Amendment bars
any attempt to legislate even rules about gun usage.
It’s a tired argument, bristling with partisan politics, but one
that flies in the face of public safety. According to the White House, ATF
recovered 20,000 such ghost guns in criminal investigations, ten times as many
as five years ago.
Ghost Guns
Several recent crimes, including a school shooting in Maryland
and an errant shooting death near a school in the Bronx just last week, were
being blamed on ghost guns.
There was no immediate report on what kind of weapon was used in
the shooting of at least eight subway riders in Brooklyn yesterday. Still, with
20,726 non-suicide gun deaths in the United States last year, it’s a small
percentage that come from ghost guns, according to the according to the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive.
Yet, Biden clearly wants to be seen as Doing Something.
In his new budget, he has proposed $1.7 billion for more
enforcement and to authorize hiring of more local police in anti-gun patrols.
The politics here seem as evident as the need to address
increases in crime.
The Republican solution is more policing; Democrats more prone
to be gun control advocates have been pressuring for legal restrictions on
assault-style guns, bigger ammunition capacities and ghost guns.
Meanwhile, we have a continuing series of school and workplace
shootings and an increase in gun violence in urban areas. A disturbing number
of those being prosecuted in connection with the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S.
Capitol face weapons charges as well.
We have congressmen in both parties who oppose any gun limits,
including some who refuse to go through a magnetometer to enter the House
floor. We have a conservative majority on the Supreme Court that appears
ready to approve pending cases to expand legalization of concealed weapons. And
we continue to have more guns in circulation than people in America.
Whatever these ghost gun regulations may do in the short run,
they are not going to deal with the politics of fear.
Terry H. Schwadron retired as a senior editor at The
New York Times, Deputy Managing Editor at The Los Angeles Times and leadership
jobs at The Providence (RI) Journal-Bulletin. He was part of a Pulitzer Gold
Medal team in Los Angeles, and his team part of several Pulitzers in New York.
As an editor, Terry created new approaches in newsrooms, built technological
tools and digital media. He pursued efforts to recruit and train minority
journalists and in scholarship programs. A resident of Harlem, he volunteers in
community storytelling, arts in education programs, tutoring and is an active
freelance trombone player.