Ghost guns have surged in recoveries by police departments nationwide, from Baltimore to Chicago to Washington. Yet some former officials from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives who support tighter regulations say legislation alone is unlikely to meaningfully reduce criminal gun violence without aggressive prosecutions targeting offenders who possess or traffic the weapons.

The ghost gun boom

The term “ghost guns” encompasses two types of unserialized guns constructed by individuals: firearms made from kits, which are mainly ordered online, and 3D-printed guns.

For decades, the ATF largely did not regulate unfinished gun parts kits because key components, known as 80% receivers, were largely not considered firearms under the federal Gun Control Act of 1968. Prior to this, people could generally build a firearm for personal use without a license.

But as ghost guns increasingly turned up on the streets, the ATF in 2022 issued a rule redefining certain kits and partially completed frames or receivers that could be “readily” assembled into functioning firearms as regulated guns, requiring serial numbers, background checks, and licensed sales.

Carlos Canino, the former ATF special agent in charge of the Los Angeles field division, said he first saw ghost guns emerge while working in California when sellers began to offer AK-47 unfinished receivers. He said at the time, people needed “some skill and a garage full of tools” to construct firearms from the receivers.

“California is a trendsetter,” Canino said, arguing the proliferation of ghost guns in Southern California eventually spread nationwide, particularly in states where legally purchasing a firearm through a licensed dealer can be difficult.

He added that gun kits moved from large guns to smaller, easier-to-assemble firearms.

“My first tour as a special agent in charge of Los Angeles, you started seeing a lot of homemade AR-15s,” he said. “When I went back for my second tour as a special agent in charge of Los Angeles in 2019, you started seeing the 9-millimeter pistols, untraceable.”

Canino said by the time he returned to the West Coast, people looking to covertly possess a firearm didn’t need to be experts in assembly.

Unlike traditional firearms purchased from licensed dealers, ghost guns are typically assembled from partially completed frames or receivers, the core component of a firearm legally classified as the gun itself. Buyers can purchase unfinished kits online, often containing jigs and instructions showing where to drill holes before attaching barrels, slides, and trigger mechanisms.

One does not need a Federal Firearms License to purchase a ghost gun because unserialized guns are not regulated by the ATF.

The process, Canino said, became dramatically easier as technology improved. 

“It’s like a Mr. Potato Head, you just bolt on all the parts,” he said. 

Still, former ATF Deputy Assistant Director Richard Marianos cautioned against overstating how much ghost guns have displaced traditional firearms trafficking. Burglaries, thefts, and straw purchases, which are when someone legally buys a firearm for another person prohibited from owning one, remain dominant ways criminals obtain guns, he said, though ghost guns represent a growing share of the market.

The two former ATF officials also differed somewhat on the threat posed by fully 3D-printed firearms. Marianos said advancements in printed technology have made some plastic firearm components increasingly viable and raised concerns about weapons evading security detection. 

Canino, however, said 3D-printed guns “are not a thing,” as he rarely encountered fully-printed guns in day-to-day operations, arguing most ghost guns recovered by police are assembled from commercially available kits rather than entirely printed at home. 

If a gun is entirely constructed of 3D-printed parts, it is unlikely that it can be fired more than a few times before it melts.

What police data shows

As ghost guns became easier to assemble and purchase online, law enforcement agencies across the country began reporting sharp increases in recoveries, particularly in major cities grappling with violent crime.

Nationwide, law enforcement recovered at least 45,240 suspected ghost guns between 2016 and 2021, according to federal data. At least 692 of those firearms were tied to homicide or attempted homicide investigations, underscoring concerns among officials that once-niche weapons were increasingly appearing in violent crimes.

The ATF reported in 2023 that more than 27,000 suspected ghost guns were recovered and submitted for tracing alone. 

Some cities saw especially dramatic spikes. 

In Baltimore, police recovered just seven guns in 2018. By 2021, that number had climbed to 201 as city officials warned the firearms were becoming more common in shootings and robberies.

In Los Angeles, authorities recovered 1,921 ghost guns in 2021 alone. 

There was also considerable growth in Chicago, as the number of ghost guns recovered by law enforcement increased from two in 2016 to 455 in 2021. 

One of the nation’s sharpest increases in the country occurred in the District of Columbia, with the Metropolitan Police Department recovering just three ghost guns in 2017 compared to 346 in 2021.

The Supreme Court in 2025 upheld its previous ruling that allowed the ATF to regulate gun kits, adding emphasis that ghost guns were appearing more often nationally.

Marianos said the rise in recoveries does not necessarily mean ghost guns have overtaken traditional firearms in criminal activity. Rather, he said the numbers illustrate how rapidly the weapons moved from a relatively obscure corner of gun culture into mainstream criminal investigations.

At the same time, Marianos cautioned that recovery figures often lack context, including whether firearms were tied to violent crimes, possessed by prohibited offenders, or ultimately led to prosecution. He said agencies frequently release headline-grabbing seizure totals without consistently detailing how the weapons were used or who possessed them.

Why law enforcement worries about them 

The core concern surrounding ghost guns is not necessarily that they are more dangerous than traditional firearms, but that they are hard for investigators to trace after a crime has been committed.

Unlike commercially manufactured firearms sold through licensed dealers, ghost guns lack serial numbers, leaving investigators without one of the most common tools used to identify where a weapon originated and who may have possessed it.

Marianos said tracing a traditionally manufactured firearm can help investigators quickly establish leads. Once a gun’s serial number is entered into ATF systems, law enforcement can determine the original purchaser, creating a paper trail that may reveal whether the firearm was stolen, trafficked, sold illegally, or used by the original owner in a crime.

Marianos said investigators can subpoena records or interview the purchaser to determine how the firearm changed hands.

Ghost guns complicate that process. Because the weapons are assembled privately and never sold through licensed dealers, there is frequently no purchase trail for investigators to follow.   

Canino said the lack of traceability can make ghost guns particularly attractive to criminals seeking to avoid detection.

“If you don’t have any witnesses … good luck getting DNA off of guns,” Canino said, describing ghost guns as potential “crime scene discard,” meaning criminals can abandon guns at scenes with fewer investigative leads than a serialized firearm.

The investigative challenges, combined with sharp increases nationwide, help explain why lawmakers in several Democratic-led states have moved aggressively to regulate untraceable firearms.

The enforcement problem

When signing Virginia’s gun package, Spanberger framed restrictions as “commonsense gun laws,” part of a broader effort to keep increasingly accessible firearms off the streets. In New York, Hochul has repeatedly argued that ghost guns create a public safety threat because they are designed to bypass traditional safeguards.

Marianos said bans alone are unlikely to meaningfully reduce violent crime unless they are paired with aggressive prosecutions targeting offenders already carrying illegal weapons.

He said legislation regulating ghost guns can help disrupt supply chains and close loopholes that allow unfinished firearms to be sold without oversight. But by itself, he argued, banning ghost guns does little to remove firearms already circulating among criminals.

“The idea behind ghost gun bans is good if it’s targeting the criminals in possession or individuals making the guns for crooks,” Marianos said, arguing lawmakers should pair restrictions with stronger penalties for violent offenders.

He said the rapid increase in recoveries helps explain why governors are signing off on ghost gun legislation, but the lack of a framework that will actually reduce crime shows how little lawmakers actually understand about guns.

“My personal belief is if we would wake up amongst our legislators on both sides, and begin to focus on the criminals in possession of weapons, … and just regulate the sportsmen, the collectors, and the enthusiasts, but put more criminal enforcement towards the bad guys, then we begin to deal with our firearms problem in this nation much better,” Marianos said.

Canino similarly said lawmakers were reacting to a technology that evolved faster than existing gun laws. 

“Technology has surpassed legislation,” Canino said, comparing ghost guns to the early internet era when emerging technology outpaced criminal statutes and created new opportunities for illicit activity. 

DOJ FIRES WARNING SHOT AS SPANBERGER SIGNS GUN LEGISLATION

Even among former ATF officials who support tighter oversight, there is agreement on one point: Bans may slow the spread of ghost guns, but stopping violent offenders will likely require more than regulating the weapons themselves.

“The reality is that gun legislation is the third rail of politics,” Canino said. “These politicians are deathly afraid to enact any meaningful gun legislation because they think they’re going to get voted out.”