City reaches settlement in case against two ghost gun manufacturers

Philadelphia has reached a settlement of a lawsuit against two “ghost gun” parts manufacturers that will halt sales in the city and nearby Pennsylvania counties and provide the city with more than $1 million to fund gun violence prevention, officials have announced.

Similar settlements in Baltimore and California have been announced in recent months against Polymer80, which has been described as the biggest manufacturer of ghost gun parts. The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has estimated that Polymer80 was responsible for more than 88% of the ghost guns recovered by police from 2017 to 2021.

Philadelphia last year sued Polymer80 Inc., based in Nevada, and JSD Supply Inc., based in Western Pennsylvania, alleging they had “perpetuated the gun violence crisis and threatened the public’s right to health and safety by marketing, selling, and dispersing unserialized ghost gun kits into Philadelphia.”

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker announced the settlement at a public safety event on Thursday. She called it an “important legal step” by the city’s Law Department “to get ghost guns off our streets and hold gun dealers accountable.”

Under the settlement, the companies will permanently halt all sales of ghost gun parts in Philadelphia and for four years in suburban collar and other nearby counties, including Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, Berks, Lancaster, Lehigh, and Northampton.

The city will receive $1.3 million over four years to fund gun violence prevention.

Jonathan S. Goldstein, a lawyer for Polymer80, declined to comment. Representatives for JSD Supply could not be reached for comment.

The Polymer80 website provides legal notifications that the company is prohibited from selling parts in California and Maryland and the District of Columbia.

The company describes itself as a designer and developer of “innovative firearms and aftermarket accessories that provide ways for our customer to participate in the build process, while expressing their right to bear arms. This provides a fun learning experience and a greater sense of pride in their completed firearm, strengthening our brand loyalty. We summarize this with our motto of ‘Engage Your Freedom.’”

On the JSD Supply website, the company says that “since 2013, we’ve helped thousands of people customize their own gun from the privacy of their garage.”

Last July, Kimbrady Carriker was charged with killing five people during a shooting rampage in West Philadelphia that involved two ghost guns.

Prior to 2019, Philadelphia police discovered five or fewer of the privately manufactured firearms per year during criminal investigations, The Inquirer reported. By 2022, 575 ghost guns turned up in investigations.

One of the lawyers representing the city, David Pucino, legal director and deputy chief counsel for the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said in an email that the settlement “will make it harder for gun traffickers and other criminal actors to source guns.”

Pucino added: “Put simply, that will mean fewer illegal guns in Philadelphia.”