Police found a ghost gun linked to suspect Luigi Mangione in the murder of CEO Brian Thompson, raising concerns about untraceable firearms.
New York City: The police recently arrested a guy named Luigi Mangione, who’s accused of killing UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson. They found him with a ghost gun and fake IDs.
So, what’s a ghost gun? It’s basically a homemade firearm without a serial number, making it super hard to trace. These guns have become more common, especially with the rise of 3D printing.
When they caught Mangione, he had a 9mm ghost gun that could fire rounds and even had a suppressor. The NYPD thinks it might have been made using a 3D printer.
Ghost guns are tricky because they don’t have serial numbers. This means no one really knows how many are out there or how many are used in crimes. It’s a real headache for law enforcement.
In fact, requests to trace these guns have skyrocketed. Just last year, the Justice Department reported a massive increase in ghost gun cases, jumping from about 1,600 to over 19,000 since 2017.
These guns can be made from kits sold online, which include all the parts except the frame. People can then finish building them at home, making them untraceable.
Ghost guns have been involved in some serious crimes. For example, there were 198 shootings linked to them from 2013 to 2024. One tragic incident in Santa Monica involved a guy who built his own AR-15 and killed five people.
Authorities are trying to tackle this issue. Some states have passed laws to regulate homemade firearms, and the ATF has introduced new rules to classify these kits as firearms.
However, there’s still a lot of pushback from gun rights groups, and a legal challenge to these regulations is currently in front of the Supreme Court. It’s a complicated situation, and the outcome is uncertain.