They're called ghost guns -- powerful handguns that can be bought online without a background check or license and put together in minutes. They're just as deadly as a regular gun but they can't be traced. In 'Ghost Guns: Eyewitness News Investigation,' we look at what's happening, what's being done and how ghost guns are shattering lives.
NEW YORK -- -- They're called ghost guns -- powerful handguns that can be bought online without a background check or license and put together in minutes.
"Now we're not only dealing with guns we can track, we are dealing with guns that we can't track so it's just a crisis," said Oliveros.The NYPD has seen an over 300 percent increase in ghost guns it has recovered so far this year compared to last year. Last September, a man opened fire outside a New York City night club and shot four people. He dropped the gun at the scene - it was a ghost gun.
"One day you're living through a nightmare, when your 16-year-old cousin is gunned down in broad daylight by another 16 year old, you're just in disbelief how could this happen," Oliveros said."A ghost gun does not have a serial number on it and serial numbers are a major way to track the life of that gun and ghost guns do not have that serial number so it makes it far more difficult," the NYPD's Nilan said.
To understand ghost guns firsthand, Eyewitness News went to a gun range with ATF Firearms Instructor Paul Greenfield. When a ghost gun is recovered from a crime scene, detectives can shoot it into a tank full of water inside its lab. This helps keep the bullet in pristine condition to compare it to other bullets left at crime scenes in the hopes of making matches.
"We have instances where we perform our examination and we learn that a ghost gun has been used in not only one particular crime or shooting or assault, we see that it has been used over and over in certain instances" Katranakis said."The prices are going down, that's why there's more in circulation," Nilan said."The amount of retailers that are selling these gun parts and gun-part kits are just going up and rising.
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