Following a mass shooting that left six dead in Tehama County, California, carried out by a shooter prohibited from owning guns and charged with multiple crimes who made two assault weapons with parts ordered online, Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence asked two Internet Service Providers to take down websites for businesses that allow dangerous persons to avoid background checks and make their own assault weapons. These do-it-yourself guns are known as “ghost guns” because they lack serial numbers that are generally required under federal law, and are a critical tool for law enforcement.
In letters sent to Shopify, Inc., the web host for GhostGunner.net, and DreamHost Inc., the web host for GhostGuns.com, Giffords Law Center urged the Internet Service Providers to disable the two businesses’ websites, because they allow individuals who are legally barred from buying a firearm to buy materials and tools that allow them to assemble guns themselves.
Both Ghost Guns and Ghost Gunner sell tools and gun components that allow anyone to make semi-automatic handguns and assault weapons without passing the background checks that federal law requires licensed gun dealers to conduct. Ghost Gunner sells a machine and software that allows purchasers to manufacture assault weapons with the simple click of a button.
The firearms that are manufactured using parts and tools sold by the two companies cannot be traced by law enforcement because they lack serial numbers. And because the guns are illegal in multiple states, the two companies aid and abet violations of various laws, in violation of the Internet Service Providers’ Acceptable Use Policies and Terms of...