Indiana teen built 'ghost gun' from online parts

In February a 17-year-old boy in Evansville, Indiana, went onto the website of Columbia-based firearms manufacturer MidwayUSA and spent $235.37 on parts making up 80 percent of a Glock 17 pistol.

The boy, whose name is being withheld because he is a minor, bought the parts for the gun in a completely legal transaction. A decades-old federal loophole allows anyone, including minors and felons, to buy 80 percent lower receivers, which are essentially stripped down hunks of metal onto which the components for a firearm are attached. Still, the boy’s father and other firearms law experts said the loophole allows minors and felons to gain easy access to firearms by building weapons at home from parts bought on the internet.

In the transaction, the boy purchased a polymer full-size Glock 17 frame kit from the MidwayUSA website for $149.99. Images of the piece on the MidwayUSA website show the outline of a pistol with the trigger, the top slider and a few other components missing. He also purchased a Glock Frame Parts kit and a 17-round magazine from MidwayUSA.

A receipt from the transaction estimated the receiver would be delivered to his home in Evansville by Feb. 28.

On March 1 the boy used his own name to buy a Glock 17 9mm 4.48-inch complete upper slide from Omaha Outdoors, according to a separate receipt from that transaction. Based in the Houston, Texas, suburbs, Omaha Outdoors sells gun, hunting and fishing equipment. The piece the boy bought is the top part of the Glock 17 handgun. He then assembled all the parts into a fully-functional weapon.

“Simple online transaction shipped straight to my door,” the boy said.

Based in Columbia, MidwayUSA manufactures firearms products and accessories. The company also sells outdoor products and employs about 400 people.

The boy used his father’s name to buy the parts from MidwayUSA and had the package shipped to his house under his father’s name. Bank statements provided by the boy showed he used his own debit card to complete the purchase.

When users purchase a Glock 80 percent lower receiver from the MidwayUSA website for the first time it asks them for their birth date. Entry of an age less than 18 years old bounces the page back to the previous screen. Entering an age of more than 18 years old allows users to proceed to the checkout.

MidwayUSA CEO Larry Potterfield told the Tribune in an email that the company validates the age of every customer “as appropriate for the products they are purchasing.” MidwayUSA also follows all federal, state and local regulations, Potterfield said.

“I believe MidwayUSA knows all of those regulations and has solid systems and processes in place to ensure that every regulation is complied with, on every order,” Potterfield said in an email. “It’s a serious mission on our part, to ensure compliance.”

A representative from Omaha did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Omaha’s website does not ask users for their age when purchasing the same unfinished receiver. Instead users must agree to Omaha’s terms of use, which state users agree to comply with all laws.

Under the Gun Control Act of 1968, entities without Federal Firearms Licenses may sell 80 percent receivers, also known as blank receivers and unfinished receivers, to any individual regardless of their age or criminal history, said John Ham, a spokesman at the Kansas City Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Federal law prohibits the sale of handguns and handgun ammunition to individuals under the age of 21. Long guns and long-gun ammunition may be sold to anyone over the age of 18.

“As far as buying parts and components, those would not be regulated,” Ham said.

Under federal law, long-gun unfinished receivers are classified as firearms, said Columbia attorney Steve Wyse. Handgun unfinished receivers are not classified as firearms under federal law, Wyse said.

Wyse expressed surprise MidwayUSA did not have stricter systems to identify purchasers, but said no federal laws were broken when the boy purchased the unfinished receiver.

“That would not be considered a firearm,” Wyse said. “None of the purchase restrictions would apply."

The boy’s father, Randall Reynolds, reached out to the Tribune on May 9, two days after two students opened fire in a Denver-area school, killing an 18-year-old student and injuring eight others.

In that case, investigators believe the suspects stole two handguns recovered at the scene, according to BuzzFeed News and Denver-ABC affiliate KMGH. By speaking out, Reynolds hoped that people would notice this loophole, and that closing it could one day save lives.

“I don’t have a problem with the gun business,” Reynolds said. “I have a problem with children being able to get these guns so easily.”

The boy plays on his high school football team. Reynolds said his son attends an inner city school and felt he needed something to protect himself and his family.

“The south side of Evansville is similar to the south side of Chicago,” he said.

David Pucino, an attorney for the Giffords Law Center, a think-tank devoted to stopping the spread of gun violence, said in most cases buyers simply need to modify an 80 percent lower receiver into a working weapon.

“It’s extremely easy,” Pucino said.

By the time Reynold's son finished assembling the parts, the gun was fully functional, Reynolds said.

“(Law enforcement) actually told me he did a pretty damn good job,” Reynolds said. “That’s just shocking.”

The boy said there was the potential someone would bring a firearm to his prom. So he placed the gun in his car in case he needed it. Eventually police found the weapon and detained him.

Juvenile court records are sealed in Indiana. The boy did not specify what, if anything, he was charged with, nor did his father. An attorney for the boy did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

A murky world

Few things are clear in the murky world of gun laws.

Federal law prohibits individuals under the age of 18 from possessing handguns. No federal law prevents individuals of any age from owning long guns, according to the Giffords Law Center.

Federal law allows individuals between the ages of 18 and 21 to possess handguns if they come to own or possess them by other legal means, such as when a parent buys a gun for their child, several sources told the Tribune.

Indiana law requires people 18 and older to receive open carry and concealed carry permits, said Jody Madeira, an Indiana University professor who specializes in firearms law.

All parties in Missouri purchasing weapons from a business with a Federal Firearms License must undergo a background check with information from an FBI database, said Sgt. Shawn Griggs, a spokesman for the Missouri State Highway Patrol Division of Drug and Crime Control.

Firearms made with 80 percent lower receivers get treated like weapons made for personal use and do not require individuals to mark them with serial numbers, Ham, from the ATF, said. The ATF does not get jurisdiction over a weapon until it is assembled, Ham said.

Columbia Police Department spokesman Jeff Pitts said that to his knowledge guns built with unfinished receivers have not been a problem the department has seen here. Even Ham said that in recent memory crimes committed with guns made from unfinished receivers have not been a large problem in Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska or Kansas.

“It really hasn’t been a trend locally,” Ham said.

Like Ham, Griggs said that to his knowledge, unfinished receivers present larger problems in other parts of the country. Still, Griggs found a dozen cases around the state over the past five years where the patrol found gun parts or unfinished receivers.

Some cases were not significant, like when someone found gun parts on the side of a road and the highway patrol responded to the scene, Griggs said. In another, the patrol found gun parts in a towed vehicle and kept the parts for safekeeping until the owner recovered the vehicle and parts.

“The concern that I could see is (guns made with unfinished receivers) are somewhat easy to finish,” Griggs said.

Federal law requires finished receivers, or essentially finished guns, to be shipped to people, or entities with federal firearms licenses. Often finished receivers are sent to federal firearms dealers, which charge fees for the service.

Unfinished, 80 percent receivers can be sent through the mail to the homes of buyers.

"Unfortunately that's the whole game with these," Ham said. "The nuance of these is being able to skirt federal law so they can be shipped and distributed and the Gun Control Act only regulates firearms."

High profile incidents

Still, ghost guns, as guns without serial numbers are called, have been used in several homicides across the country.

Police said the shooter in a 2013 shooting that killed five people in Santa Monica, California, built the gun using an unfinished receiver. The Huffington Post reported in August 2013 that California law previously prevented the shooter from buying a weapon.

Authorities in the San Francisco suburb of Walnut Creek, California, said in 2015 that the suspect in a murder-suicide of two college students made the weapon using parts ordered through the mail, according to ABC-owned station KGO-TV.

Last week non-profit news organization The Trace reported that 30 percent of all guns recovered by ATF agents in California are unserialized and often made with unfinished receivers.

Legally, Pucino, Ham and Wyse all said felons cannot build firearms using unfinished receivers. By itself, federal law does little to prevent minors and felons from building fully-functioning firearms with unfinished receivers, Pucino said.

“It’s an obvious loophole exploited by people who cannot purchase firearms by legal means,” said Pucino said. “This is a real problem federal law does not address.”

Pucino said he knows of criminal enterprises that manufacture weapons using unfinished receivers. He pointed to a recent case in Los Angeles.

Last July the Los Angeles Police Department and ATF uncovered a ring that found gangs building AR-15 semi-automatic rifles and pistols from unfinished receivers in a Hollywood warehouse. Police recovered 45 firearms and arrested 10 gang members involved in the sale of the weapons to criminals, according to the Los Angeles Times.

To his knowledge, no similar criminal operations exist in Missouri, Griggs said.

“This thing we know has become a problem in other parts of the country,” Griggs said. “We’re going to keep our eye on it.”

Attempting change

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., introduced a bill last July that would have closed the loophole. The bill also aimed at to stop the manufacturing of unfinished receivers from guns made with 3D printers.

Blumenthal’s bill stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

A handful of states are taking it upon themselves to combat the problem.

In November, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, signed a bill that made it a crime to purchase gun parts without a serial number, among other provisions, according to North Jersey Media Group.

In March, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal announced law enforcement arrested 12 individuals accused of breaking the new law. Four individuals were charged with conspiring to sell six untraceable AR-15 assault rifles, according to a news release from Grewal’s office.

Grewal’s office also sued a California company in March because his office alleged the company sold gun parts to undercover investigators.

The California State Assembly is also considering a bill that would require background checks to buy certain gun parts. Washington, New York, Connecticut, Oregon and Maryland are also among states considering tightening regulations around ghost guns made with unfinished receivers and parts made with 3D printers.

Madeira, from Indiana University, said realistically states are in a tough position because their attempts to regulate the sale of gun parts can contradict federal law. Pucino said states are fully within their right to place these types of restrictions on the sale of gun parts without conflicting with federal laws.

In virtually every way the problem is worse now than it was a year ago, so he hopes legislation being considered by states will stem the problem, Pucino said.

“I think they’re a great step,” he said. “Obviously federal legislation would go a long way toward addressing the problem.”

pjoens@columbiatribune.com

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