NEW YORK — In the wake of mass shootings in Atlanta and Colorado, there have been renewed calls for gun reform.
While gun legislation can be difficult to pass, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says there’s one thing that can be done quickly – banning so-called “ghost guns.”
Ghost guns are kits that can ordered online and assembled into a deadly a weapon, without any background checks.
“They’re as easy to buy and easier to assemble than Legos.” said Sen. Schumer.
Because they come in parts, ghost guns don’t have serial numbers and are virtually untraceable.
Schumer sent a a letter Sunday to Attorney General Merrick Garland, the Biden Administration and the ATF to close the ghost gun loophole.
“There is a loophole in the law that says the parts don’t have to be registered, even something as big as the barrel and the stock,” Schumer added.
Schumer says closing the loophole doesn’t need a vote in either chamber of Congress.
He’s hopeful the Biden administration will take immediate federal action to make ghost guns illegal.
“When the bad people can’t buy guns at a gun shop because they need to do a background check, they can order these kits in the mail, or buy them in a store and no one asks any questions, so criminals can get them. Anyone can get them.”
Neither gunman in the recent mass shootings in Atlanta and Colorado used ghost guns. But according to Schumer, the gun kits have been flowing into New York. He pointed to a bust on Long Island this past summer that resulted in the seizure of 22 ghost guns.