This week we reviewed a 1911 ghost gun both to test the gun and to check the validity of the left’s claims that such guns are a popular option for criminals.
The results: 1. The gun is awesome, and 2. It is a not a practical option for criminals seeking weapons cheaply or quickly for the purposes of committing crimes.
As for the first point, the ghost gun 1911 is a beautiful, stainless finish gun without any serial number or markings. Thus the ghost gun moniker. It was dependable through 300 rounds and although there were minor hiccups, the gun gave no indication that firing another 300 would be a problem. Additionally, the gun is accurate.
The 1911 we shot was full-sized and outfitted with Wicked Grips captioned, “Come and Take It.”
All these forgoing pluses notwithstanding, the 1911 ghost gun is not something which criminals would likely want to spend the money or time to acquire. For example, when all was said and done the ghost gun we assembled and shot cost about $1,800 to $2,000 in parts and labor and took roughly four weeks to fit together properly. In other words, the left’s intimation that people buy a parts kit, then go home and produce an operational firearm in an hour or two just simply did not hold true.
For those of you who have never delved into ghost guns, or who have only heard of them via the left’s anti-ghost gun rhetoric, the 1911 is built by buying an 80% lower then finishing the lower out. The tools to finish that lower can range anywhere from hundreds of dollars to nearly $2,000 or more, depending on how elaborate an equipment choice one makes. For example, Defense Distributed’s Ghost Gunner II costs $1,700.
We did not use a Ghost Gunner II, but if we had made that choice our cost for the 1911 would have been roughly $200 for the 80% receiver, $500 for the parts kit, and $1,700 for the Ghost Gunner II. That is $2,400 from the get-go.
Again, such a gun is not a practical option for criminals who can buy .25 autos and stolen 9mms for $100 to $400 on the street all day long.
Moreover the time involved in refining the gun, which may include filing a number of edges, drilling an extra hole or two, and literally building tools to make faulty parts work, is not something that would work for a criminal who plans on holding up a convenience store this weekend.
The conclusion—a 1911 ghost gun is a firearm that screams F-R-E-E-D-O-M without appearing impractical for criminals.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.
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