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New York State Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer urged Congress to support the reauthorization of the Undetectable Firearms Act, which prohibits “ghost guns,” during a Monday morning press conference at the Onondaga County District Attorney’s Office.

During the conference, Schumer explained how the act works to protect the community against ghost guns — guns made fully or partially of plastic that metal detectors cannot recognize. He said the act will expire on March 8 if Congress doesn’t pass a bill to reauthorize it.

The act, passed in 1988, is a sunset law that expires every 10 years unless renewed by Congress. The legislation makes it illegal to “manufacture, import, sell, ship, deliver, possess, transfer, or receive” any firearm that metal detectors or X-rays cannot recognize.

“The ghost guns pose a terrifying safety threat to our communities. Now, you say, ‘Is it happening now?’ No, it’s not, the law is successful, but God forbid this will lapse,” Schumer said. “We’re going to see tragedies occur here in central New York, and everywhere else, because there’s some crazy people. We’ve got to stop them from doing harm to us. It’s very, very serious.”

The law requires about four ounces of metal in every gun regardless of ammunition to be detectable, Schumer said while holding up a roll of pennies to demonstrate the size and weight of the required amount.

The Senate has already passed the bipartisan bill, and its reauthorization is now up to the House of Representatives. Schumer said a “small band of far-right Republicans” in the House are blocking the bill.

Gun Owners of America — a U.S. gun rights organization — is “the only pro-gun lobbying organization to historically oppose the Undetectable Firearms Act,” according to a GOA December news release. In the release, it said the act began as an “attempt to ban handguns like the Glock 17 when they were first introduced to the market in the mid-80s” and that the bill “stifles manufacturers from producing smaller, lighter, and higher-performing handguns.”

This year is the first time there has been “real opposition” to the bill’s renewal, Schumer said. If it expires, the danger of shootings will “greatly increase,” he said.

Schumer said the expiration of the bill would increase the likelihood of outdoor mass shootings — such as the Feb. 14 shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl celebration — happening indoors, since ghost guns can pass through metal detectors at large indoor venues.

“I’m embarrassed to be a member of a party that any member of would object to banning this garbage that you see in front of you,” said Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick, a Republican. “They’re only designed to be undetectable and to inflict harm on our fellow human beings. If there is such a thing as a complete no-brainer, this statute is it.”

Organizations such as the Fraternal Order of Police, the NBA, NFL, MLB and NASCAR have expressed their support of the law in letters written to Schumer, he said.

“We see what happens at sporting events today. How would you like to be at the JMA Wireless Dome … with the notion that somebody may have a gun that’s completely undetectable by the metal detector that they have to walk through,” Fitzpatrick said.

Joe Cecile, chief of the Syracuse Police Department, mentioned how the rapid advancement of technology impacts society “whether for good or evil.” He said 3D printers are no exception, as they are used to make many objects, including ghost guns.

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“There is no doubt in my mind … (the) greatest challenge we’re gonna face in law enforcement in the upcoming years will be the advancement in the 3D printer and the 3D printed guns, their ability to produce — at the flip of a switch — a fully plastic, fully undetected and fully operational gun capable of injury and death,” Cecile said.

In 2023, SPD detectives executed a search warrant at a Syracuse house suspected of selling guns and drugs, Cecile said. Detectives found two 3D printed guns, as well as a 3D printer in the middle of “printing up a fully functioning gun.”

“This is why this is so needed. There weren’t 3D printers 30 years ago, but now someone can easily make all the pieces of a gun with very heavy-duty plastic,” Schumer said. “It just looks like a gun. There’s no metal in it. None.”

Schumer said that there are two types of ghost guns: 3D printed guns and guns assembled with separately shipped parts. While New York has a state law that bans 3D printed guns, Schumer said this is a national issue.

“Guns can come from out of state. It’s not that we inspect every car that drives across the Pennsylvania–New York line,” he said. “You need national laws to make these things work.”

Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh said the state has “a great coalition” of partnerships between local, state and federal law enforcement to prevent gun violence. The coalition includes the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which he said have worked on high-profile gun trafficking cases.

Walsh said the coalition has met monthly through the Onondaga County Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence to discuss issues and challenges they face related to gun violence.

“We need to make sure there’s not a surge (in gun violence). Congress has to reauthorize this law,” Schumer said. “Right now.”

Published on February 19, 2024 at 11:03 pm

Contact Ahna: arflemin@syr.edu