A Baltimore jury has delivered the largest verdict ever leveled against a gun dealer in American history: $62 million in damages against Hanover Armory, a gun retailer in nearby Hanover, Maryland, accused of flooding Baltimore with untraceable ghost gun kits. After just 90 minutes of deliberation, the jury found the gun store negligent and concluded that its business practices directly contributed to Baltimore’s gun violence crisis.
Baltimore first began its legal fight against ghost guns in June 2022 when the city, working with Brady United Against Gun Violence, sued Polymer80 — once the largest ghost gun manufacturer in the country — and Hanover Armory for allegedly selling unserialized Polymer80 gun-building kits without conducting background checks on customers, creating a public nuisance. In announcing the verdict, Baltimore noted that ghost gun recoveries had surged nearly 1,500 percent in the city between 2019 and 2022, and were generally “linked to shootings, homicides, and youth-involved crimes.”
In a statement, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott’s office noted that the amount paid by Hanover Armory will be distributed to three community violence intervention groups.
Cracking Down on Ghost Guns
Ghost guns are homemade firearms typically built from parts kits — like those once produced by Polymer80 and sold without serial numbers or background checks — or 3D-printed components. In addition to bypassing background checks, criminals choose ghost guns because they lack serial numbers, making them difficult, if not impossible, for police to trace.
According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), 88 percent of the homemade, unserialized firearms recovered nationwide between 2017 and 2021 with identifiable manufacturers were Polymer80 ghost guns. In Baltimore, that figure was even higher: 91 percent of the unserialized guns recovered in the city between 2020 and 2022 were Polymer80 ghost guns.
As detailed here, a number of cities sued Polymer80 to stop its deadly reach before the ATF finalized a rule — upheld by the Supreme Court — treating ghost guns as commercially made firearms, requiring that they be sold with serial numbers and background checks. In August 2022, Washington, D.C., won a lawsuit against Polymer80 after alleging that it “violated consumer protection law by falsely claiming that its weapons are legal in the District and by selling illegal guns to DC consumers.” The company was forced to pay $4 million and stop selling unserialized ghost gun kits into D.C. In May 2023, the company agreed to pay $5 million and stop selling unserialized ghost gun kits into California as part of a settlement with Los Angeles.
Finally, in February 2024, Polymer80 settled with Baltimore, agreeing to pay $1.2 million to the city and cease advertising and selling ghost gun kits in Maryland. That April, it also settled with Philadelphia, agreeing to pay another $1.3 million. Months later, the company reportedly shuttered.
hanover armory’s role
In its 2022 complaint, Baltimore alleged that “Hanover Armory could foresee that its intentional sales of unserialized [pistol] frames and [rifle] receivers, failure to conduct background checks, and lack of any other measures to prevent its products from falling into the wrong hands would cause harm to Baltimore City. A firearms dealer less than seven miles from the City border that does not conduct background checks is highly appealing to individuals who should not have firearms under the law and seek to use firearms for criminal activity in the City.”
But unlike Polymer80, Hanover Armory refused to settle, and in October 2024, a judge denied the company’s motion for summary judgment. In that motion, the gun retailer claimed that Baltimore was “looking for a scapegoat” in the face of rising ghost gun recoveries and denied there was evidence connecting Hanover to “any [ghost gun] used to commit a crime in Baltimore.”
In announcing the $62 million verdict, Mayor Scott said, “Today’s verdict is a massive victory in Baltimore’s fight against illegal ghost guns and the companies that have allowed these weapons to proliferate in our neighborhoods.”
Scott continued, “Irresponsible companies like this one, that ignore the law in pursuit of profit, have no business operating in Baltimore — or anywhere, for that matter. We are making it clear: anyone — any company — who enables violence in our city will be held accountable.”