The Country’s Biggest Ghost Gun Manufacturer Has Shuttered (2024)

Facing mounting legal troubles, Polymer80 — once the country’s largest manufacturer of kits for making homemade, untraceable “ghost guns” — has ceased operations.

“P80 was getting sued left and right. Probably twice a month,” the company’s CEO, Loran Kelley Jr., said on social media. “In order to be able to stop hemorrhaging we had to shut down and get some things in order.”

The closure caps a stunning fall for a company that spurred the market for homemade firearms by selling kits with the parts, tools, and instructions for people to build handguns and AR-15-style rifles in their living rooms.

But because buyers could purchase the kits without undergoing a background check, ghost guns quickly became a weapon of choice for criminals — putting Polymer80 in the crosshairs of law enforcement and policymakers across the country. The increased scrutiny resulted in a barrage of lawsuits and restrictions that hurt the company’s bottom line.

Kelley indicated that the closure may only be temporary, saying he would be back “in some way shape or form.” But as of August 28, Polymer80’s website was down, and its phone appeared to be disconnected. Attempts to reach the company by email were unsuccessful.

Over the past two years, Polymer80 and its founders have reached legal settlements with Los Angeles, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, agreeing to pay a combined $7.5 million and to stop selling ghost gun kits in California, Maryland, and parts of Pennsylvania. A court in Washington, D.C., ordered Polymer80 to halt sales in the nation’s capital and imposed more than $4 million in penalties, saying the company had made false and misleading claims about the legality of its products. Families who lost loved ones and officers shot in the line of duty with a Polymer80 ghost gun have also sued.

Kenyatta Johnson, president of the Philadelphia City Council, called Polymer80’s closure “a victory in our efforts to combat illegal gun use here.”

“This sends a message that the selling of ghost guns and illegal ghost gun parts will not be tolerated,” Johnson said. “And if you are selling them, we will be coming after you.”

In 2022, under President Joe Biden, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives imposed a rule requiring sellers of ghost gun kits to add serial numbers to some parts and conduct background checks on prospective buyers. At least 14 states and Washington, D.C., have also restricted ghost guns.

“The effort to address the illegal use of ghost guns was a combination of litigation, a push for rulemaking by the ATF, and states and cities passing laws cracking down on ghost gun sales,” said Eric Tirschwell, director of law for Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun reform group that has supported lawsuits against Polymer80. “That led to first a shrinking of the market, then with the ATF, a shutting down of the market.” (Through its nonpolitical arm, Everytown provides grants to The Trace. You can find our donor transparency policy here, and our editorial independence policy here.)

Americans have long been legally allowed to build their own firearms without serial numbers or going through a background check, but the process was difficult, and that kept the number of DIY gun builders relatively low.

Polymer80 opened in Vacaville, California, in 2013 and began selling kits online that could be assembled into fully functioning firearms within minutes. A year later, the company relocated to Nevada.

While marketed to hobbyists, the kits had strong appeal among criminals looking to acquire untraceable weapons with little scrutiny. In Los Angeles alone, police recovered more than 4,200 Polymer80 ghost guns between January 2020 and February 2023.

“This number of untraceable guns… had significant consequences for law enforcement and public safety,” the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office said in a statement about Polymer80’s closure.

A challenge to the ATF’s ghost gun rule is now before the Supreme Court, and the outcome could also jeopardize the states’ restrictions. The justices are scheduled to hear arguments in the case on October 8.