What New York Times Left Out of Its ‘Ghost Gun’ Explainer

The New York Times still, somehow, maintains a reputation as the premiere newspaper in the United States. We’ve seen a thousand examples of just why that shouldn’t be the case, but Gell-Mann Amnesia is a real thing and the Times benefits from it more than most.

In the wake of an arrest in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and reports that the alleged killer used a “ghost gun” to carry out the fell deed, it’s unsurprising that the Times would feel the need to run a story on just what a “ghost gun” actually is.

After all, it’s only run about five billion of them already, but one thing you never do in the newspaper business is assume a reader is as well-versed on the topic as you’d like. Every story should be treated like the first time someone ever encounters the subject, more or less.

So, the explained what a “ghost gun” is.

Ghost guns, made with parts sold online, are typically easy and relatively inexpensive to assemble. An alluring selling point for many buyers is that ghost guns do not bear serial numbers, unlike traditional firearms made by companies and bought from licensed dealers.

Ghost guns are sold as do-it-yourself kits and shipped in parts so that buyers can carry out the final assembly themselves.

Not entirely true. There is also a requirement to do some modification to the piece of plastic that will, eventually, become a receiver. If it was just assembly, then that would involve selling a completed receiver, which is what the ATF defines as the firearm. That’s not what’s happening here, and failing to note that is problematic because it makes it look a lot easier than it actually is.

That’s assuming that you buy a receiver kit.

The alleged killer reportedly used a firearm with a 3D-printed receiver, which means that he didn’t even need a kit. Everything beyond what he printed was simply a replacement part for a gun. He didn’t need a kit.

Moving on…

They have been sold since the 1990s but have become popular in recent years, particularly among criminals barred from buying ordinary guns, and have been a major issue in the larger national debate over gun control.

They’ve become popular among criminals because the media keeps running stories about how they can be obtained without a background check.

However, it should also be noted that they account for only a small percentage of guns used by criminals based on the information we actually have available. Yeah, they’ve been held up as a major problem, but there’s also no evidence that the criminals who use these kinds of guns couldn’t get a gun through the black market.

Moreover, one thing they completely missed, is that building your own gun has been something available to people for centuries in this country. The tradition of building your own gun, even from a “kit,” predates this country. People have done it for ages. It was only when politicians and the media lost their minds over it that it suddenly became something criminals considered.

Funny, that.

Not that the New York Times will touch on literally any of that.  At least not while there’s hysteria to spread.