18 AGs to go after firearms industry for gun violence, opponents call it 'fear mongering'

by Madeline Armstrong, The Center Square, Dec 16, 2024

(The Center Square) – California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced that he is joining a coalition of 18 other attorneys general that aims “to hold irresponsible firearms industry members accountable for their actions that proliferate gun violence.”

“Gun violence is a national issue that demands a united response, and we will work to eliminate reckless practices that endanger our citizens,” Bonta said. “In response to the Trump Administration's disregard for gun safety measures, my fellow attorneys general and I stand united in our commitment to protect our communities. This effort aims to ensure national safety, not to limit responsible gun ownership. We will hold firearm industry members accountable for dangerous and illegal business practices that fuel gun violence and put profits over people’s lives and safety.”

According to a press release from the attorney general’s office, the coalition plans to take concrete action by working together to leverage and enforce each state’s existing civil liability and consumer protection laws.

A spokesperson for the attorney general said that in California specifically, the California DOJ plans to build off recent efforts to mitigate the sale of ghost guns - an industry that sells “finish-it-yourself” gun products without dealer licenses, background checks, serial numbers or other safety requirements. Sellers claimed there was a loophole in gun safety laws because they were selling gun build kits, just unfinished enough that they didn’t qualify as firearms. Since ghost guns are not registered, they are only accounted for when recovered from crime scenes, meaning they were used for violence.

“In recent years, the California Department of Justice (DOJ) has prioritized affirmative civil litigation efforts to stop the ghost gun industry from selling skip-the-background-check access to unserialized firearms and address the proliferation of these unserialized ghost guns in crime nationwide,” reads the statement. “DOJ pursued multi-year litigation against leading ghost gun companies for engaging in dangerous and illegal business practices that fuel gun violence.”

A recent study released by the DOJ Office of Gun Violence Prevention in October found that California has been uniquely impacted by the ghost gun crisis. From 2017-2021, California accounted for 12% of all guns recovered from crime nationwide with 55% of those guns being ghost guns. Additionally, from 2019 to 2021, the number of ghost guns recovered increased by 592%. However, since 2022, California has seen a decline in the recovery of ghost guns.

“Among other important responses to the ghost gun crisis, California enacted nation-leading legislation to reform the ghost gun industry, with many major provisions taking effect in the middle of 2022,” reads the report. “Since then, the number of ghost guns recovered as crime guns in California has dropped significantly. From 2021 to 2023, law enforcement agencies reported a 23% decrease in the number of ghost guns recovered from crime in California.”

Earlier this year, Bonta and San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins reached a settlement with Blackhawk Manufacturing, GS Performance LLC and MDX Dorporation over claims that the companies illegally sold ghost guns.

“The manufacture and sale of ghost gun kits has created a largely chaotic industry that is a massive threat to public safety,” Bonta said. “As firearm-related deaths and injuries rise, we must look for upstream interventions that get to the crux of the gun violence epidemic. Getting these manufacturers and retailers to keep untraceable ghost guns off the market is a big win for public health and safety in California.”

While the DOJ said they cannot make an announcement at this time about legislation they support or specific actions they will take as a part of this coalition, they do support legislation “to reform the ghost gun industry, codify a firearm industry standard of conduct and empower victims of gun violence to seek fair justice in court for harms caused by unlawful violations of law.”

However, the California Rifle & Pistol Association says that the announcement of this coalition and focusing on ghost guns is "fear mongering."

"Once again, the Attorney General prefers to use fear mongering to attack the rights of law-abiding citizens while supporting policies that put the citizens in harm's way by being soft on crime," reads a statement from Rick Travis, legislative director for CRPA, saying that Bonta should put legislative priorities elsewhere. "The Attorney General should focus on getting the tens of thousand of Armed Prohibited Persons off our streets before he uses tragedies to politically grandstand."

The other states a part of the coalition are Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.