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Los Angeles County prosecutor asks credit card companies to suspend payments for online purchases of build-at-home kits for so-called ghost guns — untraceable and untraceable firearms that find their path in the communities across the country in growing numbers.
District Attorney George Gascón challenged credit card companies on Tuesday to go beyond what law enforcement can do to limit the proliferation of phantom weapons.
“American Express, Mastercard and Visa have the ability to go beyond what any law enforcement agency, legislature or city council can do,” Gascón said in a statement. Press release. “We’re asking these businesses to join us in stemming the flow of ghost weapons into our communities by preventing the sale of a ghost weapon kit with just a few clicks on a smartphone or computer.”
the do-it-yourself guns are made from kits that can be sold to anyone. The kits cost between $350 and $500, according to Gascón’s office. He says the guns are easy to buy, especially for those who want to evade a background check, including underage buyers, criminals or people with criminal histories or mental illness.
The data shows that these weapons were involved in shootings and found at crime scenes with increasing frequency. Several cities have reported a sharp increase in the number of ghost weapons recovered over time — and while they represent a relatively small percentage of total weapons recovered by law enforcement, that share is growing.
Gascón, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore, and San Gabriel Police Chief Gene Harris, who is also president of the Los Angeles County Police Chiefs Association, have joined forces to urge the credit card giants to end online transactions with phantom guns.
In a letter to American Express CEO Stephen Squeri, law enforcement officials applauded the decision not to allow his company to be used as payment for a website that facilitated sex trafficking, the first company to do so.
They called on the CEO to do the same to stop the proliferation of phantom gun buying. They made the same appeal to Mastercard and Visa “to persuade you to make similar responsible decisions regarding ‘phantom guns,'” the letter says, citing their decisions not to allow payments to Backpage.com.
CNN has asked Amex, Visa and Mastercard for comment.
Many police departments reported recovering large numbers of firearms. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives cannot currently trace most ghost guns because certain frames and receivers – two key components that make a firearm work – purchased online are not classified as firearms by the bureau.
Ghost weapons have become a growing concern for law enforcement and local authorities. Last November, the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to pass an ordinance prohibiting the “possession, purchase, receipt of sale, or transportation of ‘ghost weapons'”.
Moore welcomed the decision, saying phantom weapons had been linked to 24 murders, eight attempted murders, 20 robberies and 60 assaults with a deadly weapon as of the end of last November.
Earlier last year, the city sued Polymer80, a manufacturer of ghost guns based in Nevada. At the time of the lawsuit filing, Moore said the LAPD had recovered more than 700 ghost guns that used Polymer80 parts.
Several cities have reported a large increase in the number of ghost weapons recovered over time — and while they represent a relatively small percentage of total weapons recovered by law enforcement, that share is growing.
San Francisco police seized 1,089 firearms in 2021, about 20% of which were ghost weapons. Just five years earlier, in 2016, phantom guns accounted for less than 1% of total firearm seizures. The city’s police department also reported that nearly half of firearms recovered in homicide cases in 2020 were phantom guns.
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