By Brendan Pierson
(Reuters) – A federal judge in Manhattan has ordered a Florida-seller of unfinished gun bodies without serial numbers, used to make untraceable “ghost guns,” to pay $7.8 million to New York, the state’s Democratic attorney general announced on Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman entered judgment against Indie Guns after the company failed to respond to a lawsuit by New York Attorney General Letitia James against it and nine other companies. The judgment also bars Indie Guns from selling its products in New York.
Indie Guns did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The other defendants in the case, including Arm or Ally, Rainier Arms, 80P Builder, Rock Slide USA, Brownells, 80 Percent Arms, Glockstore, KM Tactical and Primary Arms, lost a bid to end the lawsuit last month.
James sued the companies in 2022, saying their products could not be traced by law enforcement and fueled gun violence.
The lawsuit alleged the companies sold frames and receivers, the core parts of handguns and rifles, without the serial numbers required by law for firearms. The resulting so-called ghost guns have become the “weapon of choice” for violent criminals in New York according to police statistics, it said.
Furman’s default judgment did not address the merits of the case.
In a separate case brought by gun rights groups, a federal appeals court in New Orleans in November ruled that a Biden administration rule intended to crack down on ghost guns was unlawful.
The administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case.
There were more than 19,000 suspected ghost guns reported in 2021 to the ATF as having been recovered by law enforcement in criminal investigations — a 1,000% increase from 2017, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Josie Kao)
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