Columbus touts 2023 police seizures of 'ghost guns,' dangerous Glock switches

Columbus police last year seized 43 "ghost guns" — illegal and untraceable firearms built by unlicensed sellers.

Assistant Chief Gregory Bodker, who oversees operations for the city Division of Police, said during a press conference on Thursday that the division seized these ghost guns as part of a total 3,693 guns recovered in 2023.

That's a year-over-year increase from the total 3,356 guns seized in 2022.

The increase in ghost gun seizures marks a troubling trend as those guns don't have required serial numbers and other markers that allow law enforcement to trace ownership or possession of firearms used in crimes. Sometimes the guns are even 3-D printed and can evade metal detectors.

Officers confiscated 31 such guns in 2022, and 14 in 2021.

Police also saw a significant increase in the number of Glock switches confiscated on Columbus streets last year, said Bodker. Glock switches are devices as small as a quarter that can turn a semi-automatic handgun into a fully automatic weapon.

Officers seized 75 Glock switches in 2023, compared to 17 in 2022 and none in 2021, Bodker said Thursday.

Mayor Andrew Ginther said Columbus police are doing a remarkable job. He also praised gun buyback programs for removing hundreds of firearms from the community — something the city was criticized for by mayoral candidate Joe Motil, whom Ginther handily defeated in winning reelection in the Nov. 7, 2023, general election.

"(Police are) taking record numbers of guns off our streets," Ginther said. "The more guns we get off our streets, the safer we're all going to be. This shouldn't be a controversial statement."

Last year in Columbus, shootings made up the majority of the city's homicides (85% of 149 deaths) and felonious assaults (75% of 1,363 assaults). And nearly half of all robberies involved a firearm, according to Bodker.

Ginther again repeated his complaint that the Republican-controlled Ohio legislature is "refusing to get out of our way" and allow the city to enforce local gun control reforms.

"But we aren't going to allow them to prevent us from doing what we need to do to keep our city safe," Ginther said. "We're embracing innovation and continuous improvement."

In 2023, there were 149 homicides reported, a slight increase over 2022 but still markedly lower than the record-setting number of deaths in 2020 (175) and 2021(205).

jlaird@dispatch.com

@LairdWrites

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus police seized thousands of guns, including ghost guns in 2023