ATF proposal for "ghost guns"

[hollohas]

Admittedly I only initially read the summary and not the 115 page proposal so I didn't see that they say homemade guns don't need to be marked. I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't know a Privately Made Firearm was apparently not a homemade firearm.

This whole thing covers the new term, privately made firearms as those that are sold by FFL's. By this new definition, PMF are any firearm receiver or frame without a serial number, but then must be given one by the FFL selling it. This proposal also reclassified a firearm frame or receiver as including those partially completed to the point of being "clearly identifiable as a incomplete component of a weapon". Which could literally be anything beyond a virgin block of aluminum.

So what sort of PMF will FFL's even have? None. No FFL is going to bring in a bunch of Polymer 80's or similar, then take on the responsibility of serializing them. And even if they did, no one is going to buy them because why buy a serialized but unfinished firearm? Especially when they will cost more than the real thing because the FFL will have to greatly mark them up to cover the overhead and liability of serializing them.

And following that same path, if only FFL's can sell PMF (80%'s) that are serialized, who's going to be making homemade guns that don't require a serial #? Only people with the ability to turn blocks of aluminum into receiver, that's who. (Or 3D printing which let's be honest, really isn't reliable for firearms yet).

So yeah, even if this proposal still allows "homemade firearms" to forgo serial #'s, it effectively makes that the exclusive territory of actual machinists again. Even the ghost gunner cnc is designed to use 80%'s.

This proposal IS as bad as it sounds. It's going to effectively kill the homemade firearm hobby as we know it. You simply won't be able to buy 80%'s without a serial# anymore if this is implemented.