Wilmington Police explains ghost guns

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Last week, a 16-year-old student allegedly brought a loaded gun onto school grounds at Laney High School. A New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson said the weapon the student had is known as a “ghost gun.” 

WWAY spoke with Wilmington Police about these guns that are reportedly harder to detect but just as dangerous. 

“Ghost guns are basically homemade guns. They don’t have a serial number like a manufactured gun,” Lt. Greg Willett said. 

Lt. Greg Willett with Wilmington Police Department said that the lack of a serial number makes ghost guns hard to track.  

In 2022, the Biden Administration cracked down on ghost guns saying these weapons have been turning up at crime scenes across the nation in increasing numbers. 

Lt. Willett said at this point, they haven’t been a major problem in the Port City. 

“We’ve encountered homemade guns in our society and here in Wilmington from, gosh I don’t know, you could probably go back a hundred plus years,” Lt. Willett said. “A lot of what we do, regardless in today’s time, people were able to do 50, 60 years ago. But it becomes easier to do today because of technology.” 

3-D printers are part of that technology that is making ghost guns more accessible. Lt. Willett said that regardless of how they’re made, there are repercussions for owning these guns illegally.  

“If you’re not able to legally possess a firearm, you’re gonna catch a charge. If you’re possessing one of these firearms and you commit a crime, you’re gonna get charged,” Lt. Willett said. 

According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, also known as ATF, from 2016 through 2021, there were more than 45,000 suspected “ghost guns” reported to the ATF recovered by law enforcement from potential crime scenes.