Police stated Luigi Mangione, 26, an individual of curiosity within the deadly taking pictures of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York Metropolis final week, was arrested Monday with a ghost gun in his possession. Mangione was taken into custody in Altoona, Pa., earlier Monday.
New York Metropolis Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch stated Altoona police arrested Mangione on firearm expenses, after receiving a tip. She stated he’s believed to be “our person of interest” in Thompson’s taking pictures.
Mangione was reportedly discovered with a gun, a silencer, false identification playing cards and identification along with his identify on it, together with a handwritten manifesto that criticized well being care firms, in response to a number of retailers.
Joseph Kenny, chief of detectives on the New York Police Division, stated Mangione was in possession of a “ghost gun,” which can have been made utilizing a 3D printer, that was able to firing 9 mm rounds.
Ghost weapons have grow to be an rising public security risk, focused on the state and native stage for permitting criminals to evade gun laws.
This is extra about ghost weapons.
What’s a ghost gun?
A ghost gun is often bought in a equipment and constructed at residence with out serial numbers or background checks.
Serial numbers would usually permit the weapons to be traced again to the producer, the supplier and whoever initially bought the gun.
Beforehand unfinished receivers could possibly be legally bought on-line with none serial numbers or license, as a result of the federal government didn’t beforehand outline an unfinished receiver as a firearm, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) maintained that it was authorized to construct your individual firearm.
Why are ghost weapons elevating considerations?
In 2021, the ATF obtained about 20,000 experiences of suspected ghost weapons recovered by regulation enforcement in prison investigations, up from simply greater than 1,750 weapons recovered in 2016.
Between 2016 and 2021, ATF obtained 45,240 experiences of suspected privately made firearms that had been recovered by officers. Of these, 692 had been a part of murder or tried murder investigations, the Justice Division stated.
In 2022, Legal professional Basic Merrick Garland directed U.S. attorneys to prioritize federal prosecutions of those that illegally promote or switch firearms utilized in violent crimes.
What did the Biden administration change?
President Biden in April 2022 introduced a ban on unlicensed firearm kits used to fabricate weapons referred to as ghost weapons. The Biden administration’s new coverage modified the definition, redefining what a firearm is in an effort to require that these weapons are serialized and traceable.
What does Biden’s rule change imply, in observe?
The Justice Division stated that the brand new coverage “will clarify that parts kits that are readily convertible to firearms are subject to the same regulations as traditional firearms.”
The coverage particularly defines what a firearm is, and unfinished elements of a gun should now be licensed with serial numbers. Purchasers should additionally endure a background verify to purchase these objects.
These adjustments successfully imply that federal firearms sellers should put serial numbers on ghost weapons. If sellers obtain elements with out serial numbers, they need to add them earlier than promoting the gun to another person. The brand new guidelines apply no matter how the weapons are made, together with methods like setting up them from elements, kits and 3D printers.
The Nationwide Rifle Affiliation stated on the time of the rule’s announcement that the transfer was “yet another hollow plan that will not stop this violence,” and different critics have argued that the coverage is excessive, a degree Biden countered.
“Is it extreme to protect police officers? Extreme to protect our children? Extreme to keep guns out of the hands of people who couldn’t even pass a background check? The idea that someone on a terrorist list could purchase one of these guns,” the president stated.
“It isn’t extreme, it’s just basic, common sense,” he added.
Is not there a court docket problem?
Sure. On Oct. 8, 2024, the Supreme Courtroom heard Garland v. VanDerStok, a landmark case that ought to decide whether or not firearm kits can nonetheless be held to the identical requirements as common firearms, topic to background checks, age necessities and serial numbers.
The Biden administration’s regulation was challenged by 5 gun producers and distributors, two gun rights teams and two people, who contend that ghost weapons can’t be categorized as a “firearm” as outlined underneath federal regulation.
“ATF has now exceeded its authority by operating outside of the bounds set by Congress,” Peter Patterson, who represented the challengers, advised the justices.
A majority of the court docket, together with the three liberal justices, appeared sympathetic towards the federal government’s assertion that it wasn’t overstepping its authority.
“The agency just taking over what is really Congress’s business — is that a storyline that the respondents here can tell about this regulation?” requested Justice Elena Kagan.
“No, I don’t think there is any tenable way to characterize this regulation as an attempt to change the meaning of the statute to confront a new problem,” responded U.S. Solicitor Basic Elizabeth Prelogar.
However not all of the justices appeared satisfied.
“You make a lot of the fact that this has been regulated for half a century, but it wasn’t regulated in this way for a half century,” conservative Justice Clarence Thomas pressed the federal government.
