Nandita Bhose

WASHINGTON (Reuters] – On Monday, President Joe Biden announced a new rule that would ban ghost guns from being manufactured. This comes amid growing pressure on the Administration to clamp down on violent crime and gun deaths in the United States.

Ghost guns can be firearms made privately that have not been marked with a serial number. They are very difficult for law enforcement officers to track when they’re used in a crime.

Biden and Lisa Monaco (Deputy Attorney General) will unveil the final rule of Department of Justice on Monday at the White House. Since the beginning of the federal regulatory process, the final rule has passed through almost a year. It is expected to face opposition from gun advocacy in the weeks ahead.

Biden will also be naming Steve Dettelbach, who is a former U.S. prosecutor from Ohio, to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to a senior administration official.

This announcement is one of several measures Biden and Justice Department announced in April 2013 to combat gun violence and reduce mass shootings.

In 2021, there were about 20,000 suspected ghost guns reported to ATF as having been recovered by law enforcement in criminal investigations – a tenfold increase from 2016, according to statistics shared by the White House.

Justice Department bans unsolicited “buy, build and shoot” kits. Individuals can purchase these kits online or in stores without having to go through a background check. They can assemble a firearm within 30 minutes using equipment at their home. This rule also makes ghost guns that are already in use serialized firearms.

According to Gun Violence Archive, gun deaths rose in 2021 compared with 2020.

The nonprofit estimated that there were 20,726 gun-related deaths in America by 2021. This does not include suicides. The group said that 693 mass shootings (defined as four people or more being shot) claimed 702 deaths and more than 2,800 injuries.