Law enforcement officials in Syracuse and across the nation are getting behind Senator Chuck Schumer’s push to renew a federal law that makes plastic ghost guns illegal. Schumer stopped in Syracuse Monday to urge action before the provision expires in three weeks.
It’s called the Undetectable Firearms Act, and it was first signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1988. The measure has been renewed several times since, and has already passed in the senate. But this time, Schumer says the stand-alone bill was blocked by a small faction of hard-right Republicans in the House. Onondaga County District Attorney Bill Fitzpatrick, who's also a Republican, didn’t hide his disdain.
“I'm embarrassed to be a member of a party that any member of would object to banning these, this garbage that you see in front of you,” Fitzpatrick said.
More than a dozen "ghost guns" sit on a table at the Onondaga County District Attorney's office Feb. 19, 2024.
More than a dozen plastic or nearly all plastic guns were spread across the table, all collected as evidence from crimes. Some were made by 3-D printers.
"They're only designed to be undetectable and to inflict harm on our fellow human beings," Fitzpatrick said. "If there is such a thing as a complete no-brainer this statute is it.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says the guns pose a threat at indoor mass gatherings like sporting events and concerts.
“You don't want someone to be able to go to a place through a metal detector and carry a dangerous gun, whether it's the airport, whether it's JMA Wireless stadium or any other large concert venue, you don't want people to go in and have guns undetectable because they have no metal in them.”
The law requires a gun to be made with at least four ounces of metal, or about the same weight as a roll of pennies. Schumer says he has letters of support from a wide range of law enforcement and professional sports organizations. He says they’ve included the provision in a must-pass department of defense spending bill that must be acted upon by March 8th.