When Decrying ‘Ghost Gun’ Problem Shows It’s Not Much of a Problem

For years now, we’ve been told all about how so-called ghost guns were a massive problem that needed to be addressed through legislation immediately. If we didn’t, the streets would run red with blood and all the usual hysteria.

Now, if you couple that with people being concerned about school shootings, and the fact that because gun kits aren’t controlled they can be purchased by someone of any age, you’ve got a recipe for people freaking out.

I think that was what was behind Campus Safety Magazine’s recent look at “ghost guns.”

Yet, in the process, they don’t really seem to make the case that unserialized, privately made firearms–which they term as PMFs and that’s a term I actually prefer to “ghost guns”–aren’t a threat.

In fact, they kind of present evidence to the contrary.

Let’s start with the big question, which is whether PMFs have been used in school shootings. That’s what the article hinges around, after all, so what’s the big answer?

Are Ghost Guns Used in School Shootings?

Ghost guns have also been used in school shootings. According to Sandy Hook Promise, the gunman in the Nov. 14, 2019, shooting at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, Calif., used his father’s ghost gun. Killed in the shooting were 14-year-old Dominic Blackwell and 15-year-old Gracie Muehlberger. Three others were injured, and the 16-year-old shooter fatally turned the gun on himself.

Mia Tretta, shooting survivor and best friend of Muehlberger, spoke out against ghost guns during a 2022 press conference at the White House.

There have been at least four other school shootings have involved a ghost gun, according to NBC News. On Nov. 29, 2021, a 15-year-old student allegedly shot and wounded a 16-year-old classmate with a ghost gun at Cesar Chavez High School in Phoenix.

So in all this time, there have been five school shootings with PMFs and one of those involved one made the the shooter’s father, not the killer himself.

Considering how many school shootings are reported by various entities, which range from 39 last year to hundreds depending on who is picking the definition, that doesn’t seem like a big problem.

And, as this story points out elsewhere, it’s really not.

How Prevalent Are Ghost Guns?

From 2016 to 2021, ATF received around 45,000 reports of suspected PMFs that were used in crimes, including 692 homicides or attempted homicides.

ATF’s 2024 report also revealed the number of privately made firearms that law enforcement submitted to ATF increased by over 1,000% between 2017 and 2021 — up from 1,629 in 2017 to 19,273 in 2021.

Now, looking at FBI data for 2016 to 2020, then adding in the only homicide data from 2021 I could find–which came from the CDC–I added up a total of 113,855 murders during that period. I couldn’t get firm numbers for attempted murders, so let’s just ignore them for the sake of argument, at least at the moment.

If PMFs were used in 692 cases, even if all of them were murders, it would account for about 0.61 percent of all murders.

Except the percentage is actually lower because we also have attempted murders.

Plus, we also know that not all so-called ghost guns are really privately made firearms. The term also includes guns where the serial numbers were removed, which means the number of actual PMFS is probably even lower still.

Now, I’m sure the trends are these guns being used more and more, but even if we looked at all the homicides for 2021 and applied all 692 to it, it still accounts for 2.78 percent.

And again, that’s just homicides. It says nothing about attempted murders, even.

So yeah, for all the hysteria being thrown around, the statistics we see in context show that the hype just doesn’t reflect reality.

What bothers people really is that it takes the government out of the gun-acquisition process, which means they can’t exert control. That’s what’s really alarming to them.

Privately made firearms aren’t the threat they’re being made out to be. That’s clear as day, even without getting into the discussion as to whether the criminals who do use them would have been able to get a gun through some other means, legal or otherwise.

But they have to scare people because otherwise, folks won’t call for regulations.