The Bloomberg-funded movement to ban certain gun parts and kits has now landed in a red state.
Kansas state Sen. Cindy Holscher this week introduced a bill to prohibit so-called “ghost guns,” after an 18-year-old reportedly used a homebuilt gun in an attack against a school resource officer and an assistant principal earlier this month.
“With the prospect of people being able to order gun kits and gun parts online, it increases the chances that a gun could end up in the hands of somebody that is high school age, middle school, even,” Holscher told local news affiliate KCUR.org.
Holscher’s son attends Olathe East High School, the location of the shooting, which increased her urgency to act.
“We have seen instances in gun violence and increases of school gun violence, so it’s always been a concern,” she says. “But I will tell you something does shift when you’re a parent and it’s your child’s school.”
The perp, identified as 18-year-old Jaylon Desean Elmore, has been charged with attempted capital murder.
However, Elmore is still in the hospital listed in critical condition.
SEE ALSO: Los Angeles DA Wants Credit Card Companies to Prevent Customers from Purchasing ‘Ghost Guns’
Erik Clark, the resource officer on duty, was able to return fire during the melee, critically wounding Elmore.
Both Clark and Assistant Principal Kaleb Stoppel were also injured but were released from the hospital the same day the shooting occurred, March 4th.
State Sen. Rob Olson, a Republican who represents the district that includes Olathe East, was reluctant to support the bill.
“The perpetrator violated a few laws to do what he did,” Olson told Fox 4. “Another restriction’s not going to stop him. I mean, it was posted on the front door of the school not to carry firearms into the school, and he did it anyways.”
With the legislative session ending on April 1st, Olson speculated that the bill will probably not get full consideration.
But lawmakers may take it up this summer and consider it next session, he said. We’ll keep you posted.
So, a ghost gun used in a crime. By a minor, no less. What kind of ghost gun was it? There are so many possibilities, after all. It could be a Glock pattern handgun or a 1911 pattern handgun, it could be an assault weapon like an AR or an AK. All he would really need for an AK would be a parts kit, a shovel and Google. This is why common sense would argue that we need to extend background checks to 80% lowers and parts kits and even the CNC machines specifically for machining lowers. This very blog once featured a story about a youtube guy who machined an AR lower out of something like 200 empty beer cans (he was a good citizen and serialised the receiver) – which is why it is appropriate for the ATF to redefine a receiver to catch up with the forward march of technology.