New York Attorney General Letitia James says she has secured a $7.8 million judgment and permanent injunction against gun retailer Indie Guns, LLC (Indie Guns) for illegally selling ghost gun components in New York. The Florida-based company specializing in selling the parts used to make ghost guns will also be permanently banned from selling unfinished frames and receivers in New York. The judgment is the result of a major lawsuit that Attorney General James filed against Indie Guns and nine other ghost gun retailers in June 2022 for selling tens of thousands of illegal, unfinished frames and receivers to New Yorkers that were assembled into untraceable handguns and assault-style weapons. The judgment resolves the Office of the Attorney General’s (OAG) lawsuit against Indie Guns while the lawsuit against the remaining nine defendants is ongoing.
According to AG James, Indie Guns specializes in selling and shipping the components used to make ghost guns and explicitly markets itself as a supplier that will allow its customers to evade federal and state gun laws. The Attorney General said the company knowingly sells its products directly to consumers without following federal laws requiring background checks, recordkeeping, and serial numbers, and boasts on its website that self-assembling guns allows customers to “put personal firearms beyond the reach of government.” Its “LSB Kit” (short for “lock, stock, and barrel”) is marketed as “everything needed to build a complete pistol in a discounted bundle package.” Indie Guns also sells kits to assemble ghost AR-style assault weapons and promotes its products as being “UNSERIALIZED UNREGISTERED UNTRACEABLE.”
In its suit, New York claimed Indie Guns sold tens of thousands of its products to New Yorkers, including those who were seeking to evade state and federal gun laws. As its owner Lawrence Destefano said, the company’s goal was to sell as many “unserialized, untraceable, unregistered gun components” as possible to “flood this damn market.”
Between May and June of 2022, OAG caught Indie Guns and five of the other defendants — Arm or Ally, LLC, Brownells, Inc., Salvo Technologies, Inc. (a/k/a 80 P Builder or 80P Freedom Co.), Rainier Arms, LLC, and Rock Slide USA, LLC — shipping unfinished frames or receivers to undercover investigators in New York. Several defendants advertised ghost gun components for sale and shipped their products to individuals who went on to commit crimes involving ghost guns in New York.
Under New York law, the sale of an unfinished frame or receiver, the core component of a firearm, is a felony. Unfinished frames and receivers do not have serial numbers, and they allow buyers to make ghost guns at home using basic tools. Purchasers of unfinished receivers only have to make a few small changes in order to use them in a fully assembled, illegal assault weapon. Similarly, a purchaser of an unfinished frame can use commonly available tools to finish the frame, which can then be used in an untraceable handgun.
