Are ghost guns legal in Illinois?

Federal ghost gun rule requiring serial numbers for parts, background checks now in effect

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Illinois banned so-called ghost guns last year. 

Gov. JB Pritzker signed HB4383 into law in May 2022, banning the sale and possession of so-called 'ghost guns' statewide. 

In Chicago, police confiscated 455 ghost guns in 2021 - more than twice that in New York City. Nationwide, law enforcement discovered 10,000 ghost guns.  

What is a ghost gun? 

'Ghost guns' refer to unserialized, privately made firearms often sold as parts to be assembled at home, allowing purchasers to circumvent background checks. Ghost guns cannot be traced by conventional means and can be created on a 3-D printer, leaving no record of their ownership.

Federal regulations 

President Joe Biden announced new regulations to treat ghost guns like any other firearms sold in the U.S. Those rules went into effect on Aug. 24, 2022. 

Specific firearms must include a serial number that lets law enforcement trace them if they're used in a crime. Days before the new rules took effect, demand for parts was high, CBS News reported. 

While there's no data on how many ghost gun parts are sold, the number turning up at crime scenes in recent years has soared, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which regulates firearms. 

These states have enacted laws that ban the sale and manufacture of ghost guns: California, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Washington.

Connecticut, Hawaii, Nevada, and Washington, D.C., have put ghost gun restrictions in place. 

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