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Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto this week announced a settlement with Polymer80.
Polymer80, a leading producer of firearm parts kits, must pay $4 million in civil penalties. The company founders are also due to pay an additional $1 million.
The Nevada-based company is also prohibited from selling so-called “ghost guns” in California without conducting background checks and serializing its products.
Between January 2020 and February 2023, more than 4,200 Polymer80 “ghost guns” were recovered by LAPD, according to Feldstein Soto.
“This settlement holds Polymer80 and its founders accountable, keeps guns out of the hands of prohibited people, makes L.A. neighborhoods safer and will help law enforcement do their jobs,” said Hydee Feldstein Soto, Los Angeles City Attorney.
“More than 16,000 people have been killed by gun violence so far in 2023. This is an important step toward preventing unnecessary deaths, especially as Congress repeatedly fails to take action,” she added.
SEE ALSO: Biden Ordered ATF to Get His ‘Ghost Guns’ For Press Conference
Soto thanked the case contributors, Everytown Law, and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP, for their teamwork and dedication.
“Online, no-questions-asked sales of ghost gun-building kits have funneled too many firearms into the hands of felons, minors, and other prohibited people,” said Eric Tirschwell, Executive Director of Everytown Law.
Tirschwell added that the settlement sends a clear message to gun sellers prioritizing profit over safety.
The lawsuit, filed in February 2021, accused Polymer80 of violating federal Gun Control Act requirements and California gun laws. The company allegedly sold gun kits without background checks.
As part of the settlement, Polymer80 is enjoined from selling kits in California without complying with federal gun control requirements. They also cannot provide customer support for constructing “ghost guns” in California.
In addition, Polymer80 is forbidden from claiming in advertisements or on its website that unserialized gun kits are legal in California.
The lawsuit was prosecuted by Deputy City Attorneys Christopher Munsey and Tiffany Tejeda-Rodriguez, Managing Senior Assistant City Attorney Michael Bostrom, with assistance from Everytown Law and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP.
SEE ALSO: California Senate Passes Microstamping Bill to Halt New Handgun Sales By 2027
While gun control advocates are celebrating this as a win, the stone-cold reality is the majority of violent criminals in this country right now have no problem sourcing fully finished firearms, let alone gun parts.
This settlement and new restrictions on so-called “ghost guns” will not keep bad guys from getting guns.
As Erich Pratt, Executive Director of Gun Owners of America, noted in a 2022 article on the subject when the Biden administration was demonizing gun parts and kits.
“The White House claims that serializing firearms is necessary to stop criminals, but in reality, there is no evidence that registering firearms — or stamping them with serial numbers — prevents crime,” he explained
“Virtually every gun used in a crime already has a serial number,” Pratt continued.
Additionally, while the proliferation of homemade firearms at crime scenes has increased over the past few years, they are still fairly uncommon. As Pratt pointed out:
According to the Department of Justice, privately made firearms were found at 692 homicide or attempted homicide crime scenes over a six-year period. That means that, at worst, out of more than 16,000 yearly murders, homemade guns are used in around 115 homicides per year. That’s far fewer murders than many common items which are easily found around one’s house — such as knives (1,476), hammers or blunt objects (397), or fists and feet (600).
It’s also worth noting that the term “ghost gun” can be used to describe commercially produced firearms that have had the serial number scraped off. So, not all “ghost guns” recovered at crime scenes were built from gun parts and kits.
The bottom line is that the panic over so-called “ghost guns” is unwarranted. And, any new regulations will be entirely ineffectual — save for the fact that they will have a negative impact on lawful gun owners, hobbyists, and DIYers.
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It took 50 years for the supreams to admit that the right to murder babies isn’t in the 40 page document called the constitution. And they still don’t recognize their God given rights.
Lesson to learn don’t sell anything in corrupt demonkkkRAT run areas. They are corrupt their courts are corrupt and many of their people are corrupt.
Meanwhile, in Chicago, they let first time gun offenders go with NO BAIL, even the ones with illegal ‘auto’ devices on their stolen Glocks!
Seriously.
This is just another slimy attack on the Second Amendment by anti gun organizations. The GCA and NFA and an regulatory arms act is unconstitutional. If the courts keep this up they are damning themselves.