SECTION 1.
The Legislature finds and declares the following:(a) With rising homicides, the President of the United States has urged Congress to take action to end the gun violence epidemic.
(b) During the pandemic, cities across the country have experienced record-setting homicide numbers.
(c) The City of Los Angeles recorded over 352 homicides in 2021, and Chicago, Illinois, recorded over 756, with increases of 12 percent and 4 percent over the prior year, respectively. In Houston, Texas, homicides increased 18 percent from 2020.
(d) The nation’s capital
recorded over 200 homicides in 2021, the highest number since 2004. Officers there have taken more than 2,000 guns off the street and, as the city works to curb gun violence, there is growing concern over ghost guns, which are sold as parts and then assembled by the customer.
(e) A commercially manufactured firearm is made by a licensed company and then sold by a licensed firearms dealer. All commercially manufactured firearms sold in the United States are required to have a serial numbers etched or engraved on the frame or receiver.
(f) Conversely, a ghost gun is manufactured from components that can be assembled at the home of the purchaser. There is generally no requirement to pass a background check to obtain the components of a ghost gun. These parts are sold online as kits that include an “80 percent receiver,” meaning that the frame or receiver is 80-percent complete, and
the buyers must complete the final 20 percent themselves.
(g) A key selling point for many buyers is that a ghost gun does not have a serial number, that law enforcement agencies can use to trace the gun from the manufacturer to the dealer and then to any subsequent purchaser. Under current rules, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives does not treat these unfinished receivers as traditional firearms.
(h) States including California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Washington, and the District of Columbia, have enacted laws to at least partially address the problem of unserialized firearms, but many states have left them completely unregulated.