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On Friday, Virginia Governor Spanberger signed legislation that bans the manufacture, sale, and possession of so-called “ghost guns”—homemade firearms without serial numbers. The law offers no exemption for current owners. Beginning July 1st, 2027, first-time violations face penalties of up to one year in prison and a $2,500 fine.
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Democrats argue banning these “untraceable firearms” will reduce gun violence and aid law enforcement. But these requirements only enable gun registration and, ultimately, confiscation.
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People have built homemade guns since before the U.S. existed, and simple machine tools have long made that possible. Today, regulating their production has become even more difficult. With 3-D metal printers, people can now make weapons that are indistinguishable from those purchased in stores.
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In theory, investigators can trace a registered gun left at a crime scene back to its owner. In practice, criminals rarely leave guns behind unless they are seriously injured or killed. When they do, police can easily solve the case without registration. In the rare instances a registered gun is left, it isn’t registered to the person who committed the crime.
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Hawaii, Chicago, Pennsylvania, and New York have had registration for decades but can’t point to any crimes they have been able to solve with it. Even entire countries such as Canada haven’t had success.
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New York and Maryland spent tens of millions of dollars compiling a computer database that contained the unique ballistic “fingerprints” of each new gun sold over 15 years. But even these strong gun control states eventually abolished their systems after never solving a single crime.
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Spanberger’s new ghost gun law, despite her claims to the contrary, won’t produce different results.
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Following the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, the government must show that firearm regulations align with the nation’s historical tradition. Yet neither in 1791, when the Second Amendment was adopted, nor in 1868, when the 14th Amendment extended it to the states, did laws regulate homemade firearms. In fact, the Founders encouraged their production. Serial numbers themselves weren’t required on almost all firearms until 1968.
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Registration is only useful for ultimately confiscating guns. Australia, Canada, and the U.K. are examples of registration leading to confiscation. California, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. used it to know who the legal gun owners were before banning certain types of guns. Virginia’s new law only sets the stage for future gun bans.
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John R. Lott, Jr,. “New Virginia gun law sets stage for ban,” Washington Times, April 14, 2026.
