“Due to the proliferation of ghost guns, which are privately made, unregistered, and untraceable, the City of Los Angeles has seen a citywide rise in gun violence, which has been plaguing our communities,” LAPD Online claimed in a November press release. “The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has seen an increase of over 130% in ghost gun recoveries from 2020 to present day.”
They’re playing fast and loose with facts, which, unfortunately, is not surprising for an anti-gun department where the chief is beholden to anti-gun politicians for his job. A recovered gun is not the same as a gun that has been used. And one high-yield raid, like the one that LAPD conducted the month before yielding “hundreds of unserialized firearms and gun components” is all it takes to give the percentages a huge bump.
“Their sole reason that they exist in my view is that for persons who are unable to lawfully acquire firearms, this is a means for them to carry a gun – so convicted felons, violent dangerous individuals,” Chief Michael Moore opined in a press conference announcing a “rewards program” encouraging citizen “tips” in exchange for a $500 reward for turning in illegal manufacturers. That’s demonstrably not true and is slanderous to untold numbers (thank goodness!) of peaceable Americans who have lawfully been making do-it-yourself firearms since before the Second Amendment.
“Year-to-date officer-involved shootings in nine separate instances officers have faced individuals armed with ghost guns,” Chief Moore continued. “We go back to 2018, just four short years ago, during the entire year, officer-involved shootings, there was one involving a ghost gun.”
It’s fair to ask if there is anything about serial numbers that make non-“ghost guns” less dangerous. It’s also fair to ask, especially with L.A. District Attorney George Gascón “creating a ‘ticking time bomb’ by releasing murderers back on the streets,” if that might suggest a more effective way for LAPD to allocate its resources and energies.
As long as questions are being asked (just don’t expect an answer), it might be fair for someone raising alarms about unserialized firearms to provide a verifiable number of shootings that have been solved by tracing a criminal’s gun back to the lawful original purchaser and to include what percentage of solved cases that represents. Since Chief Moore is throwing out figures to make his case, let’s see how big of an issue he’s really talking about.
There’s something that seems uniquely un-American about setting up a “snitch line” with monetary rewards. Perhaps that’s to be expected because L.A. defiantly declares itself a “sanctuary city.” It’s curious how eager they are to work with the feds on guns but not on illegal immigration, and that in itself points to another area where self-serving “authorities” are abetting violent crime:
“Almost half of all of the criminals prosecuted in federal courts in 2018 were aliens, charged with crimes ranging from drug trafficking to murder to kidnapping These federal numbers are only a fraction of the crimes committed by criminal aliens.”
There’s one other potential danger to such cash-for-stoolies programs—well, two, actually.
Say there’s a corner-cutting cop who doesn’t have the evidence to get a warrant as the Fourth Amendment requires. Call the snitch line, and the problem is solved.
Now say an underworld supplier wants the cops to help him put a gang rival out of business. Can we assume collecting the $500 is — like with LAPD’s stupid “buyback” events — “no questions asked”? (As an aside, check out the “professionalism” that’s been displayed before at those.)
The horse and pony show press conference is a tacit admission that California gun laws, the ones garnering “A” grades from the prohibition lobby for being the “best” in the land, aren’t working. So the confiscators say they need more. They always will. It will never end until the totalitarian-minded have it all, and then they’ll turn to what they want next from those under their heels.
And, like an impulse control-challenged obsessive unable to resist the urge to show what’s next, Moore makes it clear:
“Later during the press conference, when referring to a static display of high-powered, assault-type rifle ghost guns, Chief Moore went on to add, ‘When you look at the firepower, these are weapons of war. The only reason these weapons exist is to kill people.’”
“The only reason”? Is that why your “Only Ones” deploy with them, Chief?
No, of course, none of the “authorized journalists” admitted to the press conference asked him that:
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
No such thing as a ghost gun so they can Eff themselves.
Government induced snitch networks are the hallmark of any leftist police state. Except they’re called “block committees”. The old East Germany, Cuba, North Vietnam and North Korea operate the most intense block committees ever devised. Even Vladimir Lenin never went this far.
Orwellian implications aside, that whole snitch on anyone violating China virus “rules” was kinda funny since the vast majority of Sheriffs and quite a few PD’s refused to enforce them.
These…..”unserialized firearms”…..are they unserialized because they were made that way (i.e., 80% kits)? Or are they unserialized because the perps deliberately filed down the serial numbers? Or maybe because the gunz were manufactured before serial numbers were mandated by law?
Conflate the three together and O-M-G, THE NUMBERS OF GHOST GUNZ HAS PROLIFERATED! WE’S ALL GONNA DIE! (said with tongue firmly planted in both cheeks)
What is that expression about “three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics”.
I think this “ghost gunz” falls into the third set, stastics.
A couple of years ago I did a FOIA request to the Illinois State Police, Cook County Sheriff and Chicago Police because the ATF published how many trace requests were performed. In my FOIA I asked how many of the traces the departments made actually led to an arrest and conviction? All three replied we have no such data, meaning ZERO. All these departments complaining about ghost guns should be FOIAd and show how many traces actually do anything. If it’s zero like in Chicago, then ghost guns don’t matter!
L.A. city hall gives incentives for all sorts of petty neighbor on neighbor snitching. The more Angelinos hate and feed grudges against one another the more the city squeals about “guns,” “bigotry” and “intolerance”.
I’ve been asking for years “How many perpetrators of violent crimes committed with a firearm were identified by tracing a gun’s serial number and that was the sole, or even primary, clue?” No answers have been received to date.
My new question is “How many firearm thefts have been avoided because a criminal acquired a ‘ghost gun’ instead?”
“How many perpetrators of violent crimes committed with a firearm were identified by tracing a gun’s serial number and that was the sole, or even primary clue?” Let’s see? U.S. Marine and U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered by one of these terrifying “Ghost Guns”? No, WAIT! Agent Brian Terry was murdered by a SERIALIZED AK-47 rifle that was SOLD to the murdered BY the ATF! So, they were able to trace THAT one, or two? Or four? I get confused because the stories keep changing. But I DO KNOW that the bullet they took out of Agent… Read more »
I hear you, Jarhead. If the ATF’s Operation Fast and Furious was what it was claimed to be then what happened to Terry would be a true tragedy. Inexcusable BS, of course. But I stand by my original question because serial number(s) were not the singular clue(s) leading to the identity(ies) of whomever pulled the trigger(s).
Semper Fi, if a non-Marine is allowed to extend those words to you.
While tracing seems to not aid in finding the perp, it does allow law enforcement to determine the original owner of the gun who was a victim of theft. They don’t get the criminal but now they can accuse the victim of straw purchasing or “unsafe storage”.
“Ghost gun recoveries.” How do you “recover” something that you never had or even knew existed until you stumbled onto it?
I think law enforcement uses “recovered” from the crime scene instead of found at the crime scene to sound more official and make it look like actual work was done when an officer trips over a gun and picks it up.
“Since WE, THE PEOPLE have lost control of our Presidents, Congressmen, Senators, Judges and other tax consuming public servants it is without question that they have become unruly, careless, lazy, irresponsible, arrogant, rebellious, wasteful, inefficient, obnoxious, domineering, abrasive, violent, malicious, unfaithful, unpatriotic, abusive, inept, incompetent, dishonest, deceitful, spiteful, repulsive, diabolical, disrespectful, counterproductive, vicious, parasitic, shameless, contemptible, villainous, tricky, unstable, crude, harsh, callous, infernal, dangerous, uncooperative, unresponsive, corrupt, lawless, dictatorial, expensive—and yet you may wonder — WHY WE NEED THE MILITIA BACK?!! What do those first thirteen words say… A WELL REGULATED MILITIA BEING NECESSARY TO THE SECURITY OF A FREE STATE… It has been… Read more »
In the community where ‘gun violence’ runs rampant there’s a saying everyone knows, ‘snitches get stiches.’ Now are powers that control local blue city governments going to blame this violence not on the gun itself but on a ghost? If so well at least we’re making some progress!
Why will I never enter the state of commiefornia??? Let me count the reasons!!!!!
Just another Fascist/Communist Narc on your Neighbor” Tactic and Policy that violates the Constitution and demonstrates what a F***ing Banana Republic the USA has de-evolved to.
B-b-but I thought those assault weapons are illegal in California! W-w-why would someone violate the law and make one??? That is illegal! Oh, this is so confusing for liberal Californians.
I retired LAPD in 1994. Chiefs I first served under, Davis and Gates were competent. After that the Chief’s slot went downhill badly. Moore is a climber, serving as little time in the streets as possible. He is APPOINTED, not elected, so the powers to be pull his chain and he responds as they want. Most street cops I knew went about their jobs as best as possible. Unlike some departments, the radio is always busy. So little time to do much else. I will say that when I was a Detective, I served for a while on the entry… Read more »
I am truly surprised that we aren’t seeing any stories, investigations or news blips about how many LEOS are murdering suspects or anyone in general with these, “Ghost Guns” and claiming they were in the perp’s possession when they shot them?