Brandon Flood, deputy director of government affairs for CeaseFirePA, spoke to Harrisburg City Council about ghost guns at a meeting on Tuesday.
Harrisburg is taking aim at an issue involving illegal gun use.
At a work session on Tuesday, Harrisburg City Council discussed the possibility of enacting legislation to target the making and distributing of ghost guns, which are increasingly being used by youth and those who aren’t legally allowed to own a gun.
At the meeting, Brandon Flood, deputy director of government affairs for CeaseFirePA, an anti-gun violence organization, shared information about the growing crisis of ghost guns getting into the wrong hands and how Harrisburg could attempt to help.
Ghost guns are firearms created using build kits purchased online, sometimes even incorporating parts made with a 3D printer. These guns do not have serial numbers and are untraceable.
Flood presented a proposal for a city ordinance that would require those in Harrisburg who purchase or sell unfinished gun kits or use a 3D printer to make gun parts to have a Federal Firearms License (FFL). These licenses allow people to engage in the business of selling, manufacturing and dealing guns.
“This is a rampant issue,” Flood said. “Not only is this an issue generally, but it’s more pronounced when it comes to our youth that are in possession. With this ordinance, we at least want to make a dent.”
According to information from the Harrisburg Police Bureau, over 50 ghost guns have been seized in the city in the past few years.
CeaseFirePA is also working with York and other cities in the commonwealth to institute similar ordinances, modeled after one that Philadelphia put in place. The issue of ghost guns is currently in front of both the PA and U.S. Supreme Courts. Flood sees instituting local ordinances as a way to address the issue in the meantime.
“I consider this to be a stopgap measure,” he said.
Flood also explained that enforcing the ordinance could include creating a task force in the city to monitor the issue.
Council weighed the proposal, but no city ordinance has yet been officially proposed or approved.
“This is a growing issue in a lot of communities in Pennsylvania,” council member Lamont Jones said. “This is a way we can get in front of it and build an ordinance around it.”
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