The US government will introduce new rules in the coming days to control privately-made firearms without serial numbers that are increasingly turning up at crime scenes, three people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
The finalization of the so-called “ghost gun” rules comes at a time when the White House and the Justice Department are under increasing pressure to crack down on gun deaths and violent crime in the United States. Joined.
The White House has also been weighing the possibility of appointing Steve Dettelbach, a former Ohio prosecutor, to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the sources said. President Joe Biden had to withdraw the nomination of his first candidate, gun control advocate David Chipman, after the nomination stalled for months due to opposition from Republicans and some Democrats in the Senate.
For nearly a year, the standards have been making their way through the federal regulatory process. Gun safety groups and congressional Democrats have been pushing for months for the Justice Department to end the rule, though it is likely to face strong resistance and litigation from gun advocacy groups.
The exact timing of the announcement has not been set, the sources said. They could not discuss the matter publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity. The White House declined to comment.
On Sunday, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer implored the administration to act more quickly.
“It is high time to exorcize ghost weapons before proliferation reaches a peak, and before more people are injured, or worse,” Schumer said in a statement. “My message is simple: No more waiting on these proposed federal rules.” Ghost weapons are “too easy to build, too hard to track, and too dangerous to ignore.”