Rare Ghost Gun Found in Michigan Gun Disposal List

Michigan law requires police and sheriff departments to turn confiscated firearms over to the state police. The state publishes a list of firearms each month, which have not been claimed. From the michigan.gov website:

The information below identifies firearm(s) confiscated by a Michigan law enforcement agency and turned over to the Michigan State Police (MSP) pursuant to MCL 28.434 and MCL 750.239.

List of Weapons to be Destroyed:

List of weapons to be destroyed October 2022 (public notice date 9-1-2022).  

If you are claiming ownership of any firearm(s) listed, please write
or call within thirty (30) days of the date of public notice. In
addition to your ownership claim, you must be authorized to possess
firearms.

If no valid ownership claim is received by MSP within thirty (30)
days of the date of public notice, the firearm(s) listed above will be destroyed.

Firearm(s) listed above are not for sale.

The firearms are listed for 30 days so owners can identify them and apply to have them returned.

If no one claims the firearms, they are destroyed. Michigan law does not require they be destroyed.  The destruction of the firearms has become a wasteful tradition.

Michigan police destroy about half a million dollars worth of firearms each year for political purposes.

The monthly lists contain the serial numbers (or lack of serial numbers) of the confiscated firearms. Therefore, the lists provide a way to determine how many firearms are confiscated without serial numbers. It is unlikely many firearms without serial numbers are returned to owners, as it would be difficult to prove ownership.

In the list of firearms to be destroyed in October, there are  555 total firearms. Of those, there are 33 without serial numbers, or 6 percent. Of the 33 without serial numbers, 26 were manufactured without serial numbers, before serial numbers were required by federal law. Six had their serial numbers removed. One was a homemade firearm sometimes referred to as a “ghost gun”.  It was a  PF94OC.

Of the 555 firearms confiscated by police in Michigan, one was a “ghost gun”, and 32 others did not have serial numbers. None of the sample with serial numbers (94%) had been traced to a legitimate owner.

This shows how ineffective the gun trace system is, and how silly it is to claim “ghost guns” are a problem.

There were 26 times as many guns which had been legally manufactured without serial numbers as there were “ghost guns”. There were six times as many guns whose serial numbers had been removed as there were “ghost guns”.

There were 554 times as many guns for whom tracing was irrelevant, than the single “ghost gun”. 

There are hundreds of millions of guns who were made so long ago,  tracing ownership makes no sense, because the guns have changed hands numerous times, and the original owner is long dead.

The only way “ghost guns” are a problem is if you believe “more guns, more problems”.  That is a delusion.

It is primarily a delusion of those who do not own guns and know little about them.

More guns do not mean more problems.

Kentucky requires their state police to sell confiscated guns through the legal dealer network, the same as new guns.  Their gun sales bring in about $850,000 per year, which is spent by Kentucky police, mostly for equipment.

The publication of the Michigan list shows us “ghost guns” are not a problem.

Gun tracing is not cost effective.

Michigan is deliberately wasting half a million dollars a year, because of inertia and political delusion.

©2022 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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