This handout picture launched by the New York Police Division (NYPD) by way of X (previously Twitter) on December 4, 2024 exhibits the person sought in connection to the capturing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. | Picture by NYPD / AFP
WASHINGTON — The brazen killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO was possible carried out with a ghost gun, one of many practically untraceable weapons that may be made a house, police stated Monday.
A ghost gun is a firearm and not using a serial quantity, and police imagine the one utilized in final week’s capturing of Brian Thompson could have been made with a 3D printer. It was able to firing 9 mm rounds. The person arrested within the crime, Luigi Mangione, additionally had sound suppressor, or silencer, police stated.
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Ghost weapons have more and more turned up at crime scenes across the U.S. lately.
Right here’s a have a look at the weapons and efforts to manage them:
What are ghost weapons?
The firearms are privately made and don’t have any serial numbers.
Typically, firearms manufactured by licensed corporations should have serial numbers — normally displayed on the body of the gun — that permit officers to hint the gun again to the producer, the firearms seller and unique purchaser.
Ghost weapons, nonetheless, are product of components that the proprietor can assemble collectively. The essential element in constructing an untraceable gun is what is called the decrease receiver. Some are bought in do-it-yourself kits and the receivers are sometimes produced from steel or polymer. They embody semiautomatic handguns and rifles.
Are they authorized?
It’s authorized within the U.S. to construct a firearm for private use. Till about two years in the past, ghost gun kits have been accessible on-line that allowed folks to assemble the weapons at residence with out background checks or age verification.
As police discovered extra ghost weapons at crime scenes, the Biden administration moved so as to add age necessities and background checks in 2022.
Shopping for one now could be extra like buying an everyday gun at a gun store.
The variety of ghost weapons has since flattened out or declined in a number of main cities, together with New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Baltimore, in keeping with court docket paperwork.
However gun teams have challenged the regulation in court docket. The Supreme Court docket heard the case in October and appeared prone to uphold the regulation. It hasn’t but handed down a ruling.
The place else have ghost weapons been used?
The variety of ghost weapons recovered by legislation enforcement elevated from 4,000 in 2018 to just about 20,000 in 2021, in keeping with Justice Division information. Nonetheless, conventional weapons are nonetheless used much more usually in crimes.
Ghost weapons actually popped into the general public consciousness in 2013 when John Zawahri opened hearth on the campus of Santa Monica School in California, killing six folks, together with his father and brother. Zawahri, who was later shot and killed by police, had assembled an AR-15-style weapon after failing a background test at a gun seller.
A gunman who killed his spouse and 4 others in Northern California in 2017 constructed his personal weapon to skirt a court docket order prohibiting him from proudly owning firearms. In 2019, a youngster used a selfmade handgun to fatally shoot two classmates and wound three others at a faculty in suburban Los Angeles.
A mass capturing carried out with an AR-15-style ghost gun left 5 folks lifeless in Philadelphia in 2023. A ghost gun was additionally utilized in a capturing that critically wounded two kindergartners at a tiny spiritual faculty in Northern California final week, police stated.
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