Honolulu police are pushing for tougher laws to slow the proliferation of homemade “ghost guns” after officers seized 88 untraceable firearms by Oct. 31.
The 88 ghost guns recovered by the Honolulu Police Department this year come from crimes they were used in or were found during investigations. The seizures represent a nearly 70 percent increase from the 52 found by officers in 2023.
A ghost gun is a privately made firearm not marked with a serial number and is almost impossible for law enforcement to trace if it is used to commit a crime, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
From 2016 through 2021 there were 45,240 suspected ghost guns reported to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives as having been recovered by law enforcement from potential crime scenes, including 692 homicides or attempted homicides.
The weapons can be assembled from scratch or with parts kits, including “buy-build-shoot” kits and 3D printers. “Buy-build-shoot” kits are pre-made, dissembled, complete firearms.
Speaking at a news conference Thursday, HPD Narcotics/Vice Division Maj. Mike Lambert walked reporters through a series of YouTube videos detailing how to make a polymer handgun with the same tools one would use for arts and crafts.
He walked reporters through how county, state and federal law enforcement have no idea of the number of homemade weapons that are on the street.
“We literally have no idea. … That’s problematic,” said Lambert. “It doesn’t take fancy tools to get these things going.”
Another video showed how to manufacture and insert a 10-cent piece of 3D-printed plastic into a personally manufactured AR-15 style assault rifle that allowed the weapon to fire automatically.
Lambert said people who know what they are doing can make an assault rifle with a 3D printer in as little as two to three hours.
Another video showed a similar plastic piece being inserted into a Glock handgun that allowed the user to fire 30 rounds in a little more than two seconds. Lambert noted that HPD’s Kevlar protective vests are not designed to stop the ammunition fired from these modified weapons.
Lambert told reporters the department is pushing for state legislation that would make possession of three or more gun parts a misdemeanor, which would allow law enforcement to educate legal firearm owners who may not be aware of the ghost gun issue.
HPD also supports making possession of any one gun part by a convicted felon a Class B felony.
“If you follow the law … you’ll be unaffected by the change of the law,” Lambert said.
Police are often finding juveniles in possession of homemade weapons and hope new laws will help them target youth before they get into gunplay.
HPD is joining law enforcement nationwide calling for federal and state laws regulating the sale and transfer of weapons that qualify as only 80 percent of a completed weapon between states.
Receiver blanks that do not meet the definition of a “firearm” are not subject to regulation under the Gun Control Act, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Police are also pursuing state legislation regulating the possession of gun parts in public spaces and a law making jail time mandatory for place-to-keep offenses in Hawaii.
HPD is joining a firearm task force under the umbrella of the Hawaii High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, with the help of agents from Homeland Security Investigations and the ATF.
In April the U.S. Supreme Court started hearing a case that is aimed at getting rid of an ATF rule requiring sellers of ghost gun kits to add serial numbers to parts and do background checks of buyers.
Hawaii’s ghost gun law, first enacted in 2020, prohibits a person who is not licensed to manufacture firearms from “possessing, purchasing, producing with a three-dimensional printer, or otherwise obtaining separately, or as part of a kit,” and has requirements for serial numbers and labeling.
Among the law’s many provisions, it requires any “sale or transfer of unfinished firearm receivers by an authorized dealer to a third party” will be done as if “they were fully assembled firearms and subject to the same background checks and licensing requirements.”
