Ghost guns in Milwaukee and a surprise Jan. 6 hearing today

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
·3 min read
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Milwaukee Police are finding more ghost guns than ever

  • A student spends six hours at his high school before staff finds a loaded gun in his pocket. A teen confesses to a carjacking at gunpoint in Walker's Point with an accomplice. An 18-year-old is arrested in connection with a deadly robbery and tells police he was armed as he drove the getaway car. All of these Milwaukee cases involved ghost guns, untraceable firearms, that are turning up more frequently and presenting challenges for law enforcement.

  • Milwaukee officers recovered eight ghost guns in 2020 and 37 last year. By the end of May, they already had found 39 — accounting for about 3% of the department's 1,183 gun recoveries so far this year. In the past three weeks, Milwaukee police turned up six more ghost guns, bringing the total to 45 as of Tuesday.

  • Firearms usually have a serial number, similar to how vehicles have unique identification numbers. Investigators can use that number to look up when, where and to whom a gun was first sold in a process known as tracing. Ghost guns do not have a serial number. Most are built from kits ordered online, though they also can be made using a 3D printer. All of the ghost guns recovered by Milwaukee police have been assembled from kits, Stelter said.

Jan. 6 committee calls unexpected hearing for noon today

  • The Jan. 6 committee has scheduled a last-minute hearing for Tuesday where it promises to reveal "recently obtained evidence" and hear testimony from thus far unnamed witnesses. The substance of Tuesday's hearing was not immediately clear. The committee has not posted a witness list, as it has for other hearings, and offered no details about the evidence it would present.

  • Tuesday's hearing came as a surprise. The committee was not expected to hold any other hearings in June. Last week, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., told reporters hearings would resume in July.

  • Tuesday's hastily called hearing could offer the biggest surprise yet from the Jan. 6 committee. Last week, a British documentarian who had access to Trump and his family members turned over previously unseen footage to the committee. It was not immediately clear if that footage, or some other evidence, would be the subject of the hearing

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Ghost guns in Milwaukee and a surprise Jan. 6 hearing today