{"id":275014,"date":"2026-05-18T11:28:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T11:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/275014\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T11:28:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T11:28:11","slug":"ghost-guns-in-florida-how-untraceable-weapons-make-it-harder-to-solve-crimes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/275014\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghost guns in Florida: How untraceable weapons make it harder to solve crimes"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 When a gun is used in a crime, detectives typically rely on a serial number to trace where it came from and who bought it. But across Florida, investigators are increasingly finding weapons with no serial number at all \u2014 making it significantly harder to solve crimes and identify suspects.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re called ghost guns, and the problem is growing.<\/p>\n

What is a ghost gun?<\/p>\n

A ghost gun, also known as a privately made firearm, is a weapon assembled from a kit or built with 3D-printed parts. It functions like any other gun but lacks the one feature that helps police connect it to a crime: a serial number.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe technology has changed so much over time to make it so much easier for people to do things that many, many years ago you wouldn\u2019t have been able to do,\u201d said Roger Handberg, a former federal prosecutor for the Middle District of Florida.<\/p>\n

A Central Florida trafficking ring and hundreds of untraceable weapons<\/p>\n

In January, a federal judge sentenced seven men connected to a Central Florida gun trafficking ring<\/a>. Prosecutors say those men built and sold hundreds of weapons, including machine guns and conversion devices, all without serial numbers.<\/p>\n

The case put a spotlight on a problem that data shows is already widespread in Florida.<\/p>\n

According to a 2024 Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) report<\/a>, Florida ranked fifth in the country for the number of ghost guns recovered at crime scenes as of 2024. Florida also accounted for the largest percentage of recovered and traced machinegun conversion devices in the nation.<\/p>\n

The data may only tell part of the story<\/p>\n

According to Giffords, a gun violence prevention organization, ATF data only includes guns submitted to law enforcement for tracing, meaning the real figures are likely an undercount.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey try to cast a net over this type of problem, but they can\u2019t capture all of it,\u201d Handberg said.<\/p>\n

When investigators do find a ghost gun at a crime scene, the absence of a serial number turns the case into something far more difficult to crack.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s even more of a whodunnit because you\u2019re missing that sort of key piece of evidence,\u201d Handberg said. \u201cWhat investigators are often able to do is find workarounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWhen there\u2019s a ghost gun on the scene, that will get law enforcement\u2019s attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

Florida has no state regulations on ghost gun parts<\/p>\n

Despite the growing presence of these weapons on Florida streets, the state has no regulations on ghost gun parts and no requirement that a gun be sold with a serial number.<\/p>\n

News 6 reached out to multiple sheriffs across Central Florida for comment. None agreed to an interview about the issue or what their departments are doing to stop it. Some said ghost guns are not a problem in their communities, a claim that raises its own questions, given how difficult these weapons are to track.<\/p>\n

As for the future, Handberg says the challenge is ongoing on both sides.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs criminals make advances in what they do, law enforcement makes advances in what they do,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s why they\u2019re able to catch and disrupt rings like this and bring it to an end and make our community a safer place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Breaking News Alerts<\/p>\n

Get breaking news alerts delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 When a gun is used in a crime, detectives typically rely on a serial number…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,2026],"class_list":["post-275014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-investigators"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}