Teen arrested with loaded ghost gun at Abington HS football game. What are ghost guns?
A teen arrested with a ghost gun — an unregulated and nearly untraceable illegal firearm — lead to the suspension of the Abington-Cheltenham High School football game Friday night.
According to the Abington Police, officers arrested the juvenile male for possession of a firearm during the game.
An alert parent notified police after observing the teen with the weapon inside the stadium. Upon contacting the male, police located a loaded handgun with an extended magazine protruding from the his waist area, authorities said.
A second, loaded magazine was also found on his person. The juvenile was quickly taken into custody and escorted out of the area without further incident, police said.
What are ghost guns?
Ghost guns are privately-made firearms without serial numbers.
Generally, firearms manufactured by licensed companies are required to have serial numbers — usually displayed on the frame of the gun — that allow officials to trace the gun back to the manufacturer, the firearms dealer and original purchaser.
Ghost guns, however, are made of parts and are then assembled together. The critical component in building an untraceable gun is what is known as the lower receiver. Some are sold in do-it-yourself kits and the receivers are typically made from metal or polymer.
An unfinished receiver — sometimes referred to as an “80-percent receiver” — can be legally bought online with no serial numbers or other markings on it, no license required. Under the current rules, the federal government does not consider unfinished lower receivers to be firearms.
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said the city has seen a nearly 300% increase in ghost guns recovered during police investigations over the past four years, including 575 recovered in 2022.
More on ghost guns: What is a ghost gun, and how police say they were used in Philadelphia mass shooting
Ghost gun empire takedown: How a traffic stop took down an alleged Bucks County ghost gun 'empire'
Supreme Court sides with Biden: Supreme Court backs Biden's tougher federal rules on untraceable 'ghost guns' for now
Supreme Court backs Biden's tougher federal rules on ghost guns
A divided Supreme Court on Tuesday backed a Biden administration effort to regulate “ghost guns,” temporarily allowing the government to require manufacturers of the untraceable weapon kits to conduct background checks on customers and mark their products with serial numbers.
White House spokesperson Olivia Dalton said the Supreme Court's order "will keep in place important efforts to combat the surge of 'ghost guns' which have proliferated in crime scenes across the country."
Cody Wisniewski, a lawyer for the Firearms Policy Coalition, said the gun rights group was "deeply disappointed" in the order but said the group is "still confident that we will yet again defeat ATF and its unlawful rule" when lower courts review the case on the merits.
This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Police arrest teen with ghost gun at Abington-Cheltenham football game
