The man held in the killing of a health care executive, arrested on firearms charges in Pennsylvania on Monday, possessed what investigators believe was a so-called ghost gun, said Joseph Kenny, the chief of detectives for the New York police.
Ghost guns, made with parts sold online, are typically easy and relatively inexpensive to assemble. An alluring selling point for many buyers is that ghost guns do not bear serial numbers, unlike traditional firearms made by companies and bought from licensed dealers.
Ghost guns are sold as do-it-yourself kits and shipped in parts so that buyers can carry out the final assembly themselves.
They have been sold since the 1990s but have become popular in recent years, particularly among criminals barred from buying ordinary guns, and have been a major issue in the larger national debate over gun control.
The issue became central to President Biden’s initiative to address gun violence.
In 2022, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives broadened its interpretation of the definition of “firearm” in the Gun Control Act of 1968. Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar wrote in the Biden administration’s emergency application that the change was needed to respond to “the urgent public safety and law enforcement crisis posed by the exponential rise of untraceable firearms.”
The regulation did not ban the sale or possession of the do-it-yourself kits, but required manufacturers and sellers to obtain licenses, mark their products with serial numbers and conduct background checks. Opponents challenged the law, saying the regulations were not authorized by the 1968 law.
After a federal court in Texas struck the law down in 2023, the Supreme Court later revived the regulations, allowing them to remain in place while a challenge moved forward. During arguments in October, a majority of the court appeared sympathetic to the Biden administration’s restrictions, with two conservatives — Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Amy Coney Barrett — joining the liberal wing.
“The reason why you want a ghost gun is specifically because it’s unserialized and can’t be traced,” Ms. Prelogar said during the arguments.
In September, Mr. Biden signed an executive order to establish a task force to assess the threat posed by ghost guns.
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