Letter to the editor: New Virginia gun law sets stage for ban
· The Washington TimesOPINION:
Last Friday, Virginia Go. Abigail Spanberger signed legislation that bans the manufacture, sale and possession of so-called “ghost guns” —homemade firearms without serial numbers. The law offers no exemption for current owners.
Beginning on July 1, 2027, first-time violations face penalties of up to a year in prison and a $2,500 fine.
Democrats argue that banning these “untraceable firearms” will reduce gun violence and aid law enforcement. But they won’t. They’ll only enable gun registration and, ultimately, confiscation.
People have built homemade guns since before America’s founding, and simple machine tools have long made it possible. Today, regulating gun production has become even more difficult, as with 3-D printers, people can now make weapons that are indistinguishable from those purchased in stores.
In theory, investigators can trace a registered gun left at a crime scene back to its owner. In practice, unless criminals are seriously injured or killed, they rarely leave guns behind. When they do, police can easily solve the case without registration. In the rare instances a registered gun is left, it isn’t registered to the person who committed the crime.
Hawaii, Chicago, Pennsylvania and New York have had registration for decades but can’t point to any crimes they’ve been able to solve with it. Even entire countries such as Canada haven’t had success.
New York and Maryland spent tens of millions of dollars compiling a computer database that contained the unique ballistic “fingerprints” of each new gun sold over 15 years. But even they eventually abolished the systems after they failed to solve a single crime.
Ms. Spanberger’s new ghost gun law won’t produce different results.
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Following the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen, the government must show that firearm regulations align with the nation’s historical tradition.
Yet neither in 1791, when the Second Amendment was adopted, nor in 1868, when the 14th Amendment extended it to the states, did laws regulate homemade firearms. In fact, the Founders encouraged their production. Serial numbers weren’t required on almost all firearms until 1968.
Registration is only useful for ultimately confiscating guns. Australia, Canada and the U.K. are examples of registration leading to confiscation.
Virginia’s new law only sets the stage for future gun bans.
JOHN R. LOTT
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President, Crime Prevention Research Center
Butte, Montana