Polymer80, once the country’s largest producer of unserialized “ghost gun” kits and component parts, has shut down following numerous legal and regulatory challenges, including a rule enacted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) designed to curb the ghost gun market.
According to a Facebook post quoted on Reddit, the company’s CEO, Loran Kelly Jr., wrote that he had to shut Polymer80 down because it “was getting sued left and right. Probably twice a month” and needed to “stop the hemorrhaging.”
Kelly said that Polymer80 “has to completely revisit how we participate in the market” and warned that he’ll “be back…in some way shape or form.” But as The Trace reported, the company’s website is down, and its phone number has been disconnected.
polymer80’s RISE AND FALL
For years, Polymer80’s so-called “80-percent”-finished pistol frames and AR-15 receivers have helped customers — including those prohibited from owning firearms — build unserialized, and thus untraceable, ghost guns at home in minutes, all while avoiding the background checks required for firearms produced by licensed manufacturers. This led to a predictably steep rise in the number of ghost guns recovered from crime scenes, and according to the ATF, 88 percent of the homemade, unserialized firearms recovered between 2017 and 2021 with identifiable manufacturers were Polymer80 ghost guns.
To learn more about ghost guns and their deadly proliferation, click here.
In December 2020, the ATF raided Polymer80 on the suspicion that the company was selling complete firearm-building kits without a background check as required by federal law. Then, in May 2021, the ATF proposed its “frame and receiver” rule to clarify the regulatory definitions of “firearm” and “frame or receiver” to include ghost gun kits as well as standalone components like nearly complete frames and receivers.
The finalized rule, which went into effect on August 24, 2022, established that “parts kits that are readily convertible to functional weapons, or functional ‘frames’ or ‘receivers’ of weapons, are subject to the same regulations as traditional firearms,” meaning they must be serialized and sold with an accompanying background check.
Several lawsuits have been filed to stop the rule from being enforced, including the Garland v. VanDerStok case that the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear. Oral arguments are scheduled for October.
LEGAL SETTLEMENTS
Polymer80 has faced numerous lawsuits over the years, including from families who alleged that their loved ones were killed with Polymer80 ghost guns. In August 2022, Washington, D.C., won a lawsuit against Polymer80 after alleging that the company “violated consumer protection law by falsely claiming that its weapons are legal in the District and by selling illegal guns to DC consumers.” Polymer80 was forced to pay $4 million and stop selling unserialized ghost gun kits into D.C.
In May 2023, the company and its founders agreed to pay $5 million and stop selling unserialized ghost gun kits into California as part of a settlement with Los Angeles. In its lawsuit, the city alleged that Polymer80 misled customers by advertising that its products were not complete firearms, and thus were legal to purchase without a background check. Between January 2020 and February 2023, the Los Angeles Police Department recovered more than 4,200 Polymer80 ghost guns.
Last December, Polymer80 settled another lawsuit filed by two Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies who were ambushed and seriously wounded in a 2020 shooting involving a Polymer80 ghost gun. The details of that settlement are confidential.
Finally, in February, Polymer80 agreed to pay $1.2 million and cease selling unserialized ghost gun kits into Maryland to settle a lawsuit filed by the City of Baltimore. Additionally, Polymer80 agreed to “provide quarterly reports to the City documenting all sales of ghost guns in neighboring states.” Like Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, Baltimore’s lawsuit alleged that the company wrongfully advertised its gun-building kits as “non-firearms” to bypass gun regulations.