September 17th, 2024
After prolonged legal ordeals, Polymer80, the largest manufacturer of kits for making homemade firearms, has shut down its operations.
“P80 was getting sued left and right, probably twice a month,” Polymer80CEO Loran Kelley Jr. announced on social media. “In order to be able to stop the hemorrhaging, we had to shut down and get some things in order.”
Polymer80 has been an industry leader in the homemade firearms sector. It built its reputation by selling instructions, parts, and tools for individuals to build handguns and popular AR-15-style rifles at home.
Lawmakers and law enforcement officials have been targeting the so-called “ghost guns” that use Polymer80 parts. Many gun control advocates alluded to an alleged increase in the use of ghost guns at crime scenes as their primary justification for passing laws to crack down on homemade firearms.
Since Polymer80 has been in the spotlight, it has had to cope with lengthy lawsuits and burdensome regulations, which have caused massive expenses that eventually forced the company to close its doors.
Kelley noted that the closure may be temporary, saying the company would return “in some way, shape, or form.”
In the last few years, Polymer80 has reached legal settlements with the cities of Baltimore, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia, where it agreed to cough up a total of $7.5 million and halt the sale of ghost gun kits in California, Maryland, and parts of Pennsylvania. A court in Washington, D.C. ordered Polymer80 to stop sales in the US capitol and slapped it with over $4 million in penalties, alleging that the company had made false and misleading assertions about the legal status of its products. Lawsuits have been filed by families who lost relatives and police officers shot on duty by Polymer80 homemade firearms.
For the Biden regime, the regulation of homemade firearms has been one of the key planks of its anti-gun agenda. In 2022, President Joe Biden’s ATF enacted a rule mandating sellers of homemade firearms kits to add serial numbers to several parts and carry out background checks on prospective gun buyers. At least 14 states and Washington, D.C. have imposed restrictions on homemade firearms.
Eric Tirschwell, director of law for Everytown for Gun Safety, admitted that the goal of gun control groups is to effectively bankrupt organizations such as Polymer80. He said the following:
“The effort to address the illegal use of ghost guns was a combination of litigation, a push for rulemaking by the ATF, and states and cities passing laws cracking down on ghost gun sales. That led to first a shrinking of the market, then with the ATF, a shutting down of the market.”
Polymer80 was first opened in Vacaville, California, in 2013. Since then, it has been selling kits online that can be turned into all functional firearms in a matter of minutes. Due to the excessive anti-gun nature of California politics, Polymer80 moved to neighboring Nevada. A legal challenge to the ATF’s ghost gun regulation is currently before the Supreme Court, where it could potentially render a notable decision against gun control restrictions at the state level. On October 8, Supreme Court justices are expected to hear arguments concerning the case.
The Second Amendment protects the rights of law-abiding Americans to build their own guns without serial numbers and without being subjected to background checks. This is the Second Amendment in its purest form.
Homemade firearms are as American as apple pie. Prohibiting these types of firearms will result in the creation of a massive police state. New innovations in the 3-D printing space have allowed gun owners to build their own firearms and peacefully transact with one another in unprecedented ways. Gun control is effectively being rendered irrelevant due to technological advances — an unacceptable prospect for gun grabbers.
The gridlock that the Biden regime has had to deal with in both chambers of Congress has compelled the administration to turn to unilateral regulatory action in order to advance its anti-gun proposals. In addition, the gun control lobby has taken it upon itself to file lawsuits against the gun industry while lawmakers pass gun control measures at the local and state level, ensuring that the right to bear arms is attacked from every angle.
The anti-gunners are a relentless bunch and will stop at nothing to destroy the Second Amendment. This is a reminder that constant vigilance is needed not just in Congress or with state legislatures but in courtrooms as well. Make no mistake, the gun-grabbing left is watching for any sign of weakness from gun owners, eager to pounce on their freedoms.
