Polymer80 Is Morally Bankrupt—and Now It’s Out of Business

Polymer80, the nation’s largest producer of ghost gun kits and component parts, has shuttered.

According to a Facebook post quoted on Reddit, the company’s CEO, Loran Kelly Jr., wrote that he had to shut Polymer80 down because it “was getting sued left and right. Probably twice a month” and needed to “stop the hemorrhaging.”

What are ghost guns?

A ghost gun is a do-it-yourself, homemade gun made from easy-to-get building blocks. These kits were previously available for purchase with no background check and no questions asked. These guns are made by an individual (not a federally licensed manufacturer or importer).

Ghost guns have been the fastest-growing gun safety problem facing our country.

A ghost gun has three key, related characteristics:

1. It is unserialized; 
2. It is untraceable; and
3. Its building blocks are acquired without a background check. 

Felons, minors, and others who are prohibited from buying firearms have been able to acquire ghost guns. They can do so without a background check or verifying their identity, circumventing existing laws.

Ghost guns do not have records or serial numbers. This lack of identification has “severely undermine[d]” law enforcement’s ability to trace where guns used in crimes back to their last point of sale to determine their owners. Ghost guns, with their lack of serial numbers, impair “law enforcement’s ability to apprehend violent individuals who may pose an ongoing threat to public safety.”  

How do ghost guns work?

Understanding ghost guns requires knowing some basic facts about how guns are constructed. Frames and receivers are the core building blocks of firearms. In a pistol, the frame is the bottom half of the gun, housing the trigger and the magazine. The frame also provides a foundation for the slide and barrel (i.e., the parts a bullet passes through when fired). In a semi-automatic rifle, the receiver houses the trigger parts and magazine and attaches to other parts.

Most ghost guns are made from “unfinished” frames and receivers. Unfinished frames and receivers are often marketed as “80%” complete. That number suggests a buyer needs to do only 20 percent of the work for the frame or receiver to be assembled into an operable firearm. In reality, these parts can be finished in just minutes.

Online sellers like Polymer80, which for years was the largest in this market, became one-stop shops for ghost gun parts, tools, and how-to guides. Many of these sellers openly promoted that their products were designed to evade federal regulations. Ghost gun kits were often sold with jigs, instructions, and even drill bits so they could be finished quickly and without specialized training.

45,000

Between 2016 and 2021, law enforcement personnel recovered approximately 45,240 unserialized ghost guns.

Polymer80’s “80%” frames for Glock-style pistols can be completed by simply drilling out two holes and removing five plastic tabs. Once that is done, other parts, such as the slide and trigger, can be added to the frame to complete the pistol.

Are ghost guns legal?

No.

In May 2021, the Biden administration responded to this threat by proposing a new Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) rule clarifying the regulatory definitions of “firearm” and “frame or receiver” to include ghost gun kits. The rule also encompassed standalone components like nearly complete frames and receivers. 

The finalized rule became effective August 24, 2022. It confirmed that ghost gun kits are regulated as firearms under federal law. Since 1968, the federal definition of “firearm” has included:

1. Complete firearms;
2. Those almost complete weapons that may be “readily converted” to an operable firearm; and 
3. The core building blocks of firearms, including the frames of handguns and the receivers of long guns. 

As the Department of Justice stated, the ATF’s new rule “makes clear that parts kits that are readily convertible to functional weapons, or functional ‘frames’ or ‘receivers’ of weapons, are subject to the same regulations as traditional firearms,” meaning they must be serialized and sold with an accompanying background check.

Since the rule’s enactment, gun groups, certain state attorneys general, and ghost gun sellers, including Polymer80, have levied lawsuits against the ATF and Department of Justice in an attempt to stop the rule from being implemented. Their complaints allege that the ATF—tasked with enforcing gun serialization and sales requirements that have been on the books since the Gun Control Act was enacted in 1968—does not have the authority to promulgate the rule.

The U.S. Department of Justice asked the Supreme Court to confirm that the ATF’s ghost gun rule is lawful and enforceable. The Supreme Court accepted the case, which is now scheduled for oral argument in October 2024. Time will tell if the ATF’s rule is allowed to stand, giving the agency the power to investigate and shut down companies that might try to follow in Polymer80’s footsteps and continue to sell “readily completed” ghost gun parts and kits. Most sellers of 80% frames and the jigs required to complete them have ceased selling those items, and some ghost gun sellers have shifted to offering 3D-printing files for frames and receivers along with all of the parts necessary to build untraceable guns. 

“Holding bad actors in the gun industry accountable in court makes a difference.”

For years, ghost guns have represented the fastest-growing gun safety threat to our communities. And Polymer80 was an industry leader in finding ways to skirt the law, making it easier to get more ghost guns into the hands of felons and minors.

Everytown has led the effort to bring the ghost gun industry to its knees—starting with Polymer80. Soon after ghost guns started turning up at crime scenes, Everytown and Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund launched a multi-pronged effort to:

1. Hold Polymer80 accountable in court;
2. Confirm that these weapons are regulated like other guns; and
3. Pass state laws banning ghost guns outright.

Polymer80’s downfall is the logical—and, for public safety, fortunate—ending for a company that has completely ignored any responsibility for keeping guns out of the hands of people who are legally prohibited from having them. And its shutdown should serve as a warning to the rest of the gun industry: Our work is not done.

We’ve worked in the legal, regulatory, and grassroots arenas to bring about change and accountability. And we are going to keep putting pressure on reckless and irresponsible industry players to answer for the violence they’ve enabled.

Join the movement to hold the gun industry accountable

We’re taking on the gun industry to help end this crisis, and it will take all of us. Sign the petition to hold the gun industry accountable.