SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Attorney General Rob Bonta calls ghost guns in the state a crisis. However, a new report published in October shows solutions are moving communities in a promising direction.
"We have made significant progress here in California,” Bonta said at a news conference Wednesday. “We've been able to really move the needle when it comes to our ghost guns."
Bonta touted the findings of a new report showing California law enforcement agencies are seeing a drop in the number of ghost guns used in crimes.
“Ghost guns are unserialized, untraceable firearms assembled by individuals who are not licensed to manufacture firearms and mostly sold to people who aren't legally allowed to have them,” Bonta said.
In late Feb. 2022, a father shot and killed his three daughters, an adult chaperone overseeing the custody visit and himself at a Sacramento church. Investigators said he used an unregistered ghost gun. At the time, he was under a restraining order that barred him from possessing a firearm.
"The ghost gun industry has had widespread appeal to people who are too young or too dangerous to legally own firearms,” Bonta said. “Those are largely the folks who are purchasing ghost guns. If you have a credit card and an internet connection, you are able to buy a ghost gun."
Across the state, the number of ghost guns recovered in crimes rose sharply during the pandemic, but starting in 2022 and increasingly in 2023, those numbers, though still high, are coming down.
ABC10 compiled the report's numbers for the counties in the greater Sacramento area with the highest number of ghost guns. All other surrounding counties had 25 or fewer ghost guns recovered in any given year.
Over the last 30 years, Bonta says California has reduced its overall gun violence rate compared to the rest of the United States. Once 50% above average, the state's firearm homicide rate is now 33% below the national average.
"That is because of action we've taken, steps that we have taken to reduce gun violence that are common sense. Things like background checks and waiting periods, things like bans on large-capacity magazines and on assault weapons, more robust use of violence interruption programs and red flag laws,” Bonta said.
The ghost gun report comes just days after Governor Gavin Newsom signed a package of more than 20 gun safety bills into law.
One law lets judges consider stalking, animal cruelty or threats of violence as evidence for a gun violence restraining order. Another newly signed law creates stricter penalties for gun owners whose guns are accessed by a child, resulting in death or injury. And another targets ghost guns by requiring law enforcement agencies to prohibit their contracted vendors from selling guns that are supposed to be destroyed.
On the federal level, ghost gun regulations are the subject of an upcoming Supreme Court case.
In 2022, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) expanded its definition of firearms it can regulate to include unassembled parts of gun receivers and frames. That was challenged in court, and a federal judge ruled the ATF doesn’t have that authority.
The Supreme Court will decide whether to uphold that judge’s ruling or overturn it and allow the ATF to regulate those ghost gun parts.
Justices are set to hear the case on Tuesday.
In a statement Wednesday, Bonta said the Supreme Court’s opinion will not effect California’s regulation of ghost guns.
“California's much broader, codified state ghost gun reforms will remain in place regardless of the outcome in that case,” Bonta wrote.
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