New York Attorney General Letitia James 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.
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 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.”
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 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.
“Ghost guns are one of the greatest threats facing our communities, and the companies that ignore our laws and put our families in danger must be held accountable,” James said. “These deadly weapons are designed to be untraceable and can easily end up in the hands of people otherwise barred from owning guns. Indie Guns refused to follow New York and federal law and tried to flood our streets with ghost guns — but now they are paying the price for those bad actions. We will continue to do everything in our power to stop the flow of illegal and dangerous ghost guns into our state and protect our communities from gun violence.”