Jennifer Mascia.
Then, in December, a 26-year-old allegedly used a 3D-printed ghost gun to fatally shoot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan street.
The assassination jolted the public. While it didn’t necessarily indicate that untraceable weapons were becoming more prevalent, it did raise questions about the state of the ghost guns market. Was Polymer80’s closure a sign that the market was shriveling up — or was it, hydralike, sprouting new heads?
Law enforcement officials, small arms researchers, and ghost gun manufacturers who recently spoke to The Trace described the law enforcement gains against ghost guns as tenuous at best, especially in light of the Trump administration’s aversion to new regulations. Ghost gun technology, they warned, is only getting more sophisticated — and as a result, the weapons are becoming more appealing to criminals.
In the vast majority of the country, it is perfectly legal to own ghost guns, but not to sell them. Companies like Polymer80 have sidestepped this prohibition by selling kits containing all the components necessary to build an unserialized firearm: barrels, triggers, unfinished frames also known as “80 percent” receivers, and all the requisite pins and screws. Since the kits were initially not considered firearms, customers could buy them without a background check, and then assemble their ghost guns at home.
Between 2017 and 2023, police recovered more than 92,000 ghost guns — the vast majority of which were built from kits, according to data released in January by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Children bought the kits and then shot themselves by accident. Mass shooters used them to kill office workers and classmates.
The violence prompted the Biden administration to crack down. In 2022, the ATF issued a rule effectively reinterpreting the federal legal definition of the word “firearm” to include most ghost gun kits. To sell the kits, retailers would need to apply for a federal firearms license, serialize the products, and conduct background checks for every sale. The ATF’s data shows that in 2023, the number of ghost guns recovered annually by police increased by less than 1 percent, the smallest jump over that seven-year span.
We reviewed the websites of 12 online retailers known for offering ghost gun kits and found that at least four were continuing to sell them. The Trace showed the listings to Rick Vasquez, a former ATF firearms expert. He said that while these four retailers were likely violating the new rule, selling the kits is something of a legal gray area while the regulation is being considered by the Supreme Court.
“Something of a gray area.” I’d say it’s completely illegal for the ATF to do this because it infringes on the 2A. There’s nothing gray about it, but Rick Vasquez will say anything.
TCJ has a long history with Jennifer, and she’s just being as hysterical as she always is. So let’s review what actually happened and the only possible result from it all.
In order to pull something like this assassination off and get away with it, he would had to have used cash for everything, that cash having been gotten some place other than his own home town. He would have had to procure burner phones for use only once, those phones purchased with cash in some place other than his own home town. He would have had to be wearing professional grade disguises when he did that. Then he would have had to travel only by train or bus, with the tickets purchased with cash. He would have had to travel with professional level disguises all the way from his home town and back. A hoodie doesn’t count. He would have had to jettison his clothing at frequent stops so as not to leave traces of fibers. He would have had to wear a hair net so as not to leave hair samples. He would had to have used gloves at every step of the way so as not to leave finger prints.
Folks, as best as I know, there are only two entities on earth who can pull off this sort of thing: the CIA, and Mossad. He was always going to be caught. I say it again. He was always going to be caught.
So given that, what difference does it make where he got his firearm or what type he used? He could purchase firearms legally anyway – so what difference does it make if he had used an unserialized firearm?
Here is your answer: none. It makes no difference at all. He was always going to be caught. So the type of fiream he chose or how he got it had absolutely nothing to do with perpetrating the crime.
But communicating that to her readers wouldn’t let Jennifer use scary phrases like “Ghost Guns” to frighten soccer moms into believing that the more America builds unserialized firearms, the more assassinations there will be.
That’s the non sequitur she is trafficking in with this commentary. As I said, she’s just being hysterical. But that’s what she does.
