Pennsylvania AG Josh Shapiro Testifies at Senate Judiciary Subcommittee Hearing on "Ghost" Guns

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Just a week after Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s office seized six fully assembled “ghost” guns and numerous component pieces in a raid – along with nearly $1 million worth of crystal meth and Nazi paraphernalia – Shapiro  testified yesterday during a hearing chaired by U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) in the Senate Judiciary Constitution Subcommittee, titled “Stop Gun Violence: Ghost Guns.”

During his remarks, Shapiro held up a jig for a handgun, which allows someone to transform a plastic receiver into a firearm. “With me today, I have a Polymer80 jig of a 9 millimeter Glock style handgun. This jig comes in a kit with an 80 percent receiver, the drill bits necessary, the trigger assembly and all of the components to make a fully operational firearm. It's quickly assembled by drilling three holes here, here, and here, and then milling out three pieces here, here, and here. Unlike the collectibles or hobby build at home gun kits of years ago, these kits can be assembled in minutes using very simple tools,” Shapiro said.

Shapiro noted the exponential increase in the number of “ghost” guns seized by law enforcement in Pennsylvania and described agents witnessing firsthand “felons and people prohibited from purchasing firearms” buying gut kits and therefore accessing weapons without a background check.

“The consequences are heartbreaking,” Shapiro said. “Last march a former Temple University football player was killed on the streets of Chinatown in Philadelphia with a “ghost” gun, fired by someone, and this is important, who would not have passed a background check but still got their hands on one of these.”

The full text of Shapiro’s opening remarks is copied below.

Chairman Blumenthal, Acting Ranking Member Lee and members of this committee, I'm Josh Shapiro. I've served as Pennsylvania’s Attorney General as the Chairman noted for the last four and a half years.

I'm very thankful that this subcommittee is taking “ghost” guns, the emerging weapon of choice for violent criminals, quite seriously and has given all of us time today to inform this committee and assist you in better understanding this issue, and perhaps even we can take some time to correct many of the outlandish misstatements from the Ranking Member that were stated before. I would note that just because something is said with passion does not make it true.

My office has been working on the real threat of “ghost” guns since 2017. These are untrackable, untraceable firearms built at home or sometimes on gun show tables. They lack serial number and they are purchased, importantly, without a background check.

With me today, I have a Polymer80 jig of a 9 millimeter Glock style handgun. This jig comes in a kit with an 80 percent receiver, the drill bits necessary, the trigger assembly and all of the components to make a fully operational firearm. It's quickly assembled by drilling three holes here, here, and here, and then milling out three pieces here, here, and here. Unlike the collectibles or hobby build at home gun kits of years ago, these kits can be assembled in minutes using very simple tools.

Let me give you some data points from the real world of what we are seeing in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In 2018, in Philadelphia, just 13 “ghost” guns were recovered. In 2019, that increased nearly eight-fold to 99 “ghost” guns. In 2020, that number more than doubled again to 250. And today we've recovered 201 of these “ghost” guns in just the first four months of the year.

That's in one city alone. Across all of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania we've seen an exponential increase in recoveries by 437 percent. That's data. That is facts. That's what we're seeing on the ground.

The consequences are heartbreaking. Last march a former Temple University football player was killed on the streets of Chinatown in Philadelphia with a “ghost” gun, fired by someone, and this is important, who would not have passed a background check but still got their hands on one of these.

Over the past three years agents from my office have witnessed felons and people prohibited from purchasing firearms buy these “ghost” guns kits with cash and leave gun shows with them by the duffel bag size full. They walk out of a gun show, assemble the kits in minutes and send fully functioning guns onto our streets and right in the hands of violent criminals. We've made arrests where “ghost” guns purchased at gun shows are on the streets literally the next day after that purchase.

In 2019, our agents witnessed prohibited purchasers buying an 80 percent receiver kit just like this one at a York gun show. They took it to the next table over, just feet away as I am from these witnesses here, where a convicted felon and neo-Nazi drilled out the receiver, assembled the gun, and handed it back to him right at the gun show.

Last year our agents watched as a company sold 90 of these kits in one batch to a convicted felon paying $38,000 in cash. When our office executed a search warrant at this individual's home, it turned up even more fully assembled firearms made with these kits. There were loads of ammunition, cash to churn out these guns. Had we not had agents at the show, dozens of more “ghost” guns would be on the streets of Pennsylvania today.

Earlier this year we arrested a man in Philadelphia who was buying these kits at a gun show and then selling the assembled weapons on the street for $1,100. That's a 100 percent profit. Last month we recovered six “ghost” guns in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley during the course of a drug trafficking investigation – along with six “ghost” guns, a million dollars of meth and Nazi paraphernalia.

While my office has made great strides and experienced success operationally in getting these firearms off the street, law enforcement cannot keep up with the supply so we’ve had to work smarter and create meaningful partnerships like the one with Pennsylvania’s largest gun show promoter to voluntarily remove all of these DIY kits from their shows.

At themtime of the agreement the dealers had already sold 6,000 of these “ghost” guns and as a result of this first of its kind in the nation agreement, we were able to stop 36,000 of these guns from getting out on the street.

I'm here today to respectfully urge the Senate to seize this opportunity where law enforcement, community groups, and gun owners and gun shops agree that we have to do more, that we have to make sure these DIY kits require a background check so we can simply keep them out of the hands of criminals.

Mr. Chairman, this is common sense. We know these kits can be fully functioning firearms in minutes. We know they're being used to kill people on the streets of our communities, and this body has the power to do something about it.

Look, I recognize there is a lot of expertise at this table and in this room. It's on us to figure out a way to protect law abiding gun owners. To preserve our heritage and not burden hobbyists while still closing off violent criminals' easy access to these unserialized, untraceable guns that do not require a background check.

Thank you all very much for having this hearing and I look forward to answering your questions.

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