Two stories on “Ghost Guns” or “80% Guns” tell the tale of some fake news.

The NBC story leaves the impression that all the parts needed to build an unregistered Ghost Gun are online, and all someone has to do is put all the parts together, and presto-changeo you have your own unregistered, untraceable, and legal gun.

Here’s the ABC story that’s mostly accurate but still scare-mongering:

Criminals always find ways to get guns. They often steal them. It does not matter if the gun is registered since it’s not registered in the name of the thief.

The NBC story is misleading. The ABC story is more accurate. To build a Ghost Gun from a kit requires a good deal of machining which the ABC story shows. The folks at BearingArms.com deal with some of the NBC fake news in its report:

“Here’s the thing: former ATF agent Rick Vasquez and Jeff Rossen are boldly and directly lying to the viewers/readers of NBC News. I know this from firsthand experience, as I’ve built semi-automatic firearms from the ground up, including AR-15s and an AKM.

“You cannot buy ‘all the parts’ for any firearm online and simply slap the pieces together to build a functioning firearm as they mislead viewers, and this is a very easy claim to debunk.

“Every firearm made or imported into the United States has a part of the frame or receiver that the ATF recognizes as the actual firearm that carries the serial number. All the other pieces are just parts. It is these other pieces — barrels, stocks, handguards, sights, triggers, etc. — that can be bought online or in retail stores as individual parts or in parts kits, but the receiver must either be purchased as a serialized firearm like a whole gun, or it must be manufactured from an incomplete piece of material into a functional firearm.”

That last line is important. To build out the receiver a person would need a specialized machine to manufacture the buildout with precision.

Let’s get real for a moment. If criminals want to find a way to make unregistered and untraceable guns, they will, and no law will stop them. Even confiscation won’t do the trick. Think Prohibition.