SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — The County of San Diego partnered with a national gun safety group GIFFORDS Law Center to file a lawsuit against Defense Distributed, claiming the company is selling a gun manufacturing device illegally in California.
“It’s offensive and absurd. We know exactly what this machine is for,” said District 3 County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer.
The do-it-yourself firearm-making device called the ‘Ghost Gunner’ is essentially a 3D printer.
“They have a machine that prints guns in your house, and it was branded as a ‘Ghost Gunner’ to print guns in your house that were untraceable firearms,” said Lawson-Remer. “It was sold that way online and at gun manufacturing trade shows across our country.”
The County claims the company pulled a bait and switch in order to comply with state law, rebranding the ‘Ghost Gunner’ as the ‘Coast Runner.’
“The State of California passed a law that made that machine and the title of that machine illegal, but instead of actually discontinuing this manufacturing of death, they instead rebranded it,” added Lawson-Remer. “The ‘Ghost Gunner’ became the ‘Coast Runner,’ and they kept selling it.”
Lawson-Remer told CBS 8 that Defense Distributed and other ghost gun companies like it need to be held accountable.
“We have all these rules now if you have mental health issues or if you have past convictions, you can’t buy a firearm, but you can still order these parts online or order a machine to build this gun at your house,” said Lawson-Remer. “There’s no serial number and there’s no background checks.”
But others view this lawsuit as an attack on the Second Amendment.
“I know they like to call them ‘ghost guns,’ that’s kind of a pejorative term, but really what they’re talking about is the ability for people to home manufacture firearms, which Americans have been doing as long as there’s been an American,” said Michael Schwartz, Executive Director of the San Diego County Gun Owners PAC.
Schwartz says state law allows for home gun manufacturing as long as you’re eligible to own or possess a firearm in California, and that certain rules are followed such as registering the firearm by applying for a unique serial number with the California Department of Justice.
When the County of San Diego passed a law in January 2022 making it illegal to possess or distribute gun parts without serial numbers, Schwartz believes they infringed on the constitutional right to bear arms.
“In the State of California, even if you home-manufacture a firearm, it does have to have a serial number. The County of San Diego changed it to where you can’t even buy raw materials to make your firearm unless those raw materials are serialized, which doesn’t exist, so what they’ve done is they’ve stopped the ability for people to home manufacture a firearm,” explained Schwartz.
“If you’re a law-abiding citizen, there should be a clear path for you to follow the law," added Schwartz. "What they’ve done in the County is they’ve distorted and disrupted state law in order to stop law-abiding people from following the law.”
Lawson-Remer, on the other hand, believes by filing suit against ghost gun manufacturers like Defense Distributed, they’re sending a clear and necessary message.
“We’re telling them loud and clear that there will be no ghost guns, no illegal distribution of firearms allowed on our watch here in the State of California,” said Lawson-Remer.
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