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Wednesday, March 27, 2024 | Back issues
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Judge asked to block San Diego ban on ghost guns

The number of ghost guns impounded in San Diego has already surpassed the number seized in 2019 and 2020 — and the number is expected to double by year's end.

SAN DIEGO (CN) – A novel ban on non-serialized, unfinished, untraceable firearms — known as ghost guns — signed into law by San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria may violate state law allowing gun owners to assemble their own weapons.

U.S. District Judge Cynthia Bashant was asked by several gun owners Tuesday to issue a temporary restraining order blocking the law, which is set to go into effect Oct. 23.

But the Second Amendment proponents advocating for their right to assemble their own firearms took it a step further, suggesting San Diego’s ban criminalizes legal conduct rather than preventing untraceable weapons from getting into the wrong hands.

“Although the city may have good intentions in what it’s trying to prevent, it actually prevents lawful conduct with the state regulatory scheme,” attorney John Dillon, representing individual gun owners along with the San Diego County Gun Owners PAC and Firearms Policy Coalition, told the Barack Obama appointee.

When he signed the Eliminate Non-serialized Untraceable Firearms (ENUF) ordinance Sept. 23, Gloria, a Democrat, noted the “dramatic increase in gun violence across our city using ghost guns.”

According to the mayor’s office, San Diego saw a 169% increase in the number of ghost guns retrieved and impounded compared to the previous year.

This year, San Diego has already surpassed the number of ghost guns seized in all of 2019 and 2020, and the number seized by the San Diego Police Department is expected to double by the end of the year.

Most ghost guns impounded by the SDPD are seized from people who cannot pass state or federal background checks because of a criminal conviction involving a felony or violent misdemeanor or because they are prohibited from owning firearms due to mental illness, according to the mayor’s office.

Following Gloria’s lead, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors quickly followed suit, voting 3-2 on Tuesday in favor of a measure introduced by board chair Nathan Fletcher and Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer to implement a similar ordinance banning ghost guns countywide.

The county measure also includes the creation of community-based gun reduction programs and safe firearms storage.

Back in the courtroom Tuesday, attorneys for the gun owners argued San Diego’s ordinance was an outlier in the Golden State, where those who want to DIY assemble their own firearms must apply for and receive a California Department of Justice-issued serial number to engrave or permanently affix to their firearm within 10 days of assembling it.

“The reality is it attacks a host of constitutionally recognized conduct the state recognizes,” attorney Raymond DiGuiseppe, also representing the gun owners, told Bashant.

He added: “People can still do that everywhere except the city of San Diego. They can manufacture guns with un-serialized parts and apply for a serial number with the state. Nobody is asking to have ghost guns — people are asking for serialized numbers, and they will be traceable.”

Deputy City Attorney Matthew Zollman said the state’s process for obtaining serial numbers and undergoing a background check for self-assembled firearms is “an honor system.”

“The problem with that is pretty self-apparent: Criminals will skip the last step,” Zollman said.

He added: “We’re not trying to say you can’t have the right to self-manufacture, we’re saying you can’t self-manufacture from an unfinished piece.”

Unfinished firearms frames or receivers don’t come with a pre-serialized number, however, even though anyone can legally purchase the parts.

“There is no ability to get an unfinished frame that is serialized,” DiGuiseppe told Bashant after she asked whether they were sold on the market.

Bashant took the matter under submission.

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Categories / Civil Rights, Courts, Regional

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