Everytown hailed Washington’s new HB 2320 as a major win against untraceable “ghost guns,” but a close look shows their claims overreach and ignore key facts about how firearms are actually used and traced in crimes.
Everytown frames “gun safety” as synonymous with stricter gun control, so their celebration of HB 2320 was predictable. They paint the measure as a decisive fix to an emerging threat from 3D-printed and privately made firearms. The reality is messier, and the bill’s impact on violent crime is far from clear.
Today, Governor Bob Ferguson signed HB 2320 into law, landmark legislation to strengthen Washington’s ghost gun law and address the growing threat of untraceable, 3D-printed firearms. With the governor’s signature, Washington continues to lead the nation in advancing innovative solutions to prevent gun violence and keep communities safe.
The term ghost guns covers a range of privately made firearms, but they still represent a small slice of weapons recovered in violent crime. Research tying privately made guns to spikes in suicide or homicide hasn’t shown a matching jump in homicide rates where ghost gun recoveries rise. That gap matters; policy focused on symbolism won’t necessarily change outcomes on the street.
Ghost guns are unserialized, untraceable firearms that can be manufactured at home without a background check, allowing minors and other prohibited individuals to bypass Washington’s gun safety laws. Rapidly evolving 3D printing technology and digital blueprints have accelerated this threat, making it easier than ever to produce illegal weapons outside of the legal system.
HB 2320 closes these technological loopholes by regulating the digital blueprints that allow gun printing and by prohibiting the use of 3D printers and CNC milling machines to manufacture firearms and machine gun conversion devices. By bringing these DIY weapons under the same standards as traditional firearms, the law ensures that investigators are no longer left at a “dead end” when untraceable weapons are recovered at crime scenes.
Lawmakers and advocates make a big point about traceability, as if serial numbers are a silver bullet for solving violent crime. In practice, tracing usually just gets you back to the original retail purchaser, and investigators often run out of practical leads from there. In states without universal checks or with lots of theft, tracing rarely produces the suspect or the full chain of custody you’d need to prosecute.
Police frequently hit the same wall with stolen guns, which are a major source of weapons used in criminal acts. If a legally purchased pistol is stolen and later used in a homicide, tracing the serial number brings detectives to the victim-turned-owner, not the thief. That means many crimes remain unsolved for the same reason regardless of how the weapon was manufactured.
“3D-printed guns are just as scary as they sound: untraceable weapons that allow criminals to thwart law enforcement and make a firearm with the push of a button,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “With this new law, Washington is leading the nation in the fight against this emerging threat, and taking common-sense measures to prevent people from using 3D printers as a way to avoid a background check.”
Feinblatt is a moron. Making a functional firearm requires more than pressing print and walking away; 3D printing can produce parts, but complete, reliable weapons need additional components, metalworking, and testing. The scare-speak here ignores how difficult it is to make durable, safe firearms solely with consumer 3D printers.
The bill’s reach also sweeps up hobbyists and lawful makers who tinker responsibly, while doing little to stop truly determined criminals who obtain guns through theft, straw purchases, or the black market. If the goal is reducing violent crime, focusing on supply routes like theft and illegal trafficking would produce more tangible results than chasing blueprints and printers. Criminals adapt; regulation that only burdens lawful citizens is a predictable outcome.
“Untraceable guns don’t just bypass laws, they cost lives,” said Ju Namkung, a volunteer with the Washington chapter of Moms Demand Action. “We’re deeply grateful to Governor Ferguson for signing this bill and to Representative Salahuddin and the lawmakers who worked tirelessly to get it across the finish line. This law will undoubtedly make our communities safer and we’re proud to live in a state that is putting public safety first.”
That confidence is understandable but not proven. Even coverage from outlets sympathetic to tighter gun rules has noted that increased recoveries of privately made firearms did not correspond with higher homicide rates. When policy rests on emotion and rhetoric rather than consistent evidence, we end up with laws that feel good politically but deliver little on public safety.
At every turn, the public debate around HB 2320 mixes legitimate concerns about new technologies with broad claims that don’t hold up under scrutiny. Washington’s law may sound decisive, but the most pressing problems driving gun violence—stolen weapons, illegal trafficking, and failed enforcement where laws already exist—remain the core issues. Lawmakers should pursue those gaps with the same energy they bring to headline-grabbing bans and controls.
