Tuesday, April 30, 2024 | 2 a.m.
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I like to shoot handguns. I’m a National Rifle Association-certified pistol safety instructor and I have a concealed carry permit.
But I’m very concerned about ghost guns — homemade, special-order guns made without serial numbers or other traceable identifiers. Anyone can easily make or buy one.
Ghost guns serve no sporting purpose although they fit nicely into criminal activity and street violence. Nearly 2,500 of them were connected to criminal activity in 102 federal cases over the past decade.
In fact, proceeds from the recent record-setting $16 million heist of gold bars and cash in Canada were linked to the purchase and attempted smuggling of ghost guns.
A court in Nevada ruled that ghost guns are legal but the state Supreme Court had the good sense to reverse that ruling. Other states should consider doing the same.
I’m a strong supporter of the Second Amendment but I see no sane, legal use for ghost guns. Some people consider them a lucrative business or a fun hobby, but that hobby only enables criminals, and the Second Amendment can survive and prosper without them.
As the U.S. Supreme Court declared in 1963, in Kennedy v. Mendoza-Martinez, “While the Constitution protects against invasions of individual rights, it is not a suicide pact.”