LANSNG, Mich. – Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel joined 20 other attorneys general in filing an amicus brief supporting a new federal rule regulating ghost guns.
Ghost guns are unserialized weapons that are often made at home from weapon parts kits or partially complete frames and receivers that can be purchased without background checks.
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The rule would help ensure that buyers pass background checks before they can purchase the kits. It would also help law enforcement trace any self-made guns that are used in a crime. It would also limit gun traffickers’ ability to distribute weapons.
“On average, more than 1,200 Michigan residents die each year from gun violence,” Nessel said. “Ghost guns continue to proliferate our streets and I have been asking ATF to close the dangerous loophole that keeps these weapons from being subject to the same regulations as other firearms. So I gladly stand with my colleagues in supporting this new common-sense rule.”
Read: Biden aims at ‘ghost gun’ violence with new federal rule
ATF’s Final Rule regulates ghost guns by clarifying definitions in the Gun Control Act. The Final Rule makes it clear that weapons parts kits and partially complete frames and receivers are “firearms” under the act.
That would make them subject to the same background check requirements as conventionally manufactured guns.
The brief was led by District of Columbia Attorney General Karl A. Racine and the Attorneys General of New Jersey and Pennsylvania and joined by the Attorneys General of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin.
A copy of the brief is available below.