President-elect Joseph Biden is targeting untraceable firearms in his gun control plan, and a federal raid on a ghost gun company could be a shot across the bow for gun kit makers.
Armed with a search warrant, agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives raided Polymer80 on Dec. 10, a small manufacturer in a boxy-looking building in an inconspicuous industrial park in the desert town of Dayton, Nevada. Polymer80 makes unfinished gun parts, otherwise known as ghost guns, because buyers can convert them into AR-15s, Glock-style pistols and other firearms with the drilling of a few well-placed holes, evading the background checks required when buying a firearm from a dealer. They also lack serial numbers, which makes them difficult to trace.
The ATF was looking for Polymer80’s “Buy Build Shoot” kits, which it blames for a violent interstate crime wave, according to the search warrant and the 119-page affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Reno, Nevada. The ATF says that Polymer80 shipped gun kits to California and the resulting firearms were recovered in investigations of 15 murders last year, including a triple-homicide home invasion in Glendale. The ATF also says a Polymer80-built handgun was used this year in the non-fatal shooting of two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies in Compton.