Imee files bill banning 'ghost guns'
Sen. Maria Imelda Josefa “Imee” R. Marcos has filed Senate Bill (SB) 1937 which seeks to prohibit untraceable firearms or “ghost guns.’’
In filing SB 1937, known as the “Anti-Untraceable Firearms Act,” Marcos said that the proliferation of loose or unregistered firearms has been the major concern of law enforcement agencies for decades and statistics show that more than 90 percent of all crime incidents involved the use of loose or unregistered firearms.
The lady senator, chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Economic Affairs, stated that in recent years, law enforcement agencies in many parts of the world have voiced their concerns on the existence of ghost guns.
Ghost guns refer to firearms, including frames or receivers, which lack serial numbers engraved on the frames or receivers by a licensed manufacturer, importer, or dealer, including those made through three dimensional (3D) printing machines.
These undetectable and untraceable firearms are illegal.
The United Nations on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has reported that with the advent of 3D printing, illegal software produced individual 3D printed firearms that looked rather unlike weapons on the legal market and pose a grave threat to public safety.
With the advent of 3D printing, 3D-printed firearms have become an emerging source of illicit firearms.
These 3D-printed firearms or ghost guns are untraceable and are mostly or entirely made of materials undetectable by traditional security scanning systems.
Thus, Marcos said that the State should act immediately in putting a stop to the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking of firearms, their parts, components, and ammunition that pose a major threat to the security and welfare of the people.
SB 1937 seeks to penalize the manufacture, sale, offer to sell, transfer, purchase, import, acquire, possess, or receive a ghost gun or parts thereof, machinery, tool or instrument, including 3D printing machines used or intended to be used in the manufacture of ghost guns or parts thereof, among others, to put a stop and prevent the threat such firearm/s poses.
Under the bill, any person found guilty of any of the prohibited acts mentioned shall be punished with imprisonment of prision mayor to reclusion temporal or a fine of P1 million to P3 million, or both, at the discretion of the court.