{"id":222004,"date":"2026-06-18T05:45:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T05:45:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/222004\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T05:45:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T05:45:21","slug":"reading-city-council-passes-ordinance-to-ban-manufacturing-of-ghost-guns-berks-regional-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/222004\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading City Council passes ordinance to ban manufacturing of ‘ghost guns’ | Berks Regional News"},"content":{"rendered":"

READING, Pa. \u2013 Reading City Council voted Monday night to adopt an ordinance<\/a> amending its city code to prohibit the use of three-dimensional printers to manufacture firearms \u2014 also known as ghost guns \u2014 and to impose prohibitions related to the transfer, use or conversion of unfinished firearms and related equipment.<\/p>\n

Last month, council heard a presentation from Brandon Flood, the deputy director of government affairs for CeaseFirePA<\/a>, recommending that council adopt an ordinance to impose regulations on ghost guns.<\/p>\n

Flood\u00a0had originally explained to council that\u00a0ghost guns are unregistered and untraceable homemade weapons, and that there are no checks and balances.<\/p>\n

At the time the ordinance was introduced earlier this month, Chief of Police\u00a0Elias “Eli” Vazquez told council that in 2021 the city seized four ghost guns, 13 in 2022 and 20 in 2023.<\/p>\n

Councilmember Melissa Ventura had been instrumental is getting Flood to make a presentation to council.<\/p>\n

“Unlike traditional firearms, these weapons can be purchased without a background check and assembled by anyone, including those who may be a prohibited person,” Ventura said. “This loophole makes it easier for dangerous individuals to obtain firearms, contributing to increased violence and undermining our efforts to keep our neighborhoods safe.”<\/p>\n

“We’re not saying that this is the solution to gun violence, but by enacting this ordinance, we are taking a proactive step to close this loophole and ensure that all firearms in our community are traceable and subject to the same legal requirements as other guns,” Ventura said.<\/p>\n

During public comment, Shaykayarira Delrio-Gonzalez, whose child was a victim of gun violence, said leaders in the community are the only ones that can make a difference.<\/p>\n

“By approving the ban on ghost guns, you are helping save someone else’s life,\u201d she said. “You’re saving your constituents.”<\/p>\n

“Ghost guns kits are the IKEA of guns,”\u00a0Delrio-Gonzalez said.\u00a0“They’re on serialized firearm or firearms parts that can be 3D printed or purchased in the state of Pennsylvania without passing a background check.”<\/p>\n

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives has passed legislation mandating background checks and serial numbers for the gun kits, but the Senate has not acted to consider the proposed bill.<\/p>\n

Flood, who attended the meeting on Monday, was asked if that pending legislation would be in contrast to the city’s ban.<\/p>\n

“We didn’t take the same approach with requiring serialization and marking, but I think those two things can be addressed simultaneously; one is not canceling out the other,” Flood said.<\/p>\n

Flood said Reading is now the third city in Pennsylvania to ban ghost guns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa. \u2013 Reading City Council voted Monday night to adopt an ordinance amending its city code to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[96633,93878,5028,5634,128,1095,130,129,12583],"class_list":["post-222004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-brandon-flood","tag-ghost-guns","tag-melissa-ventura","tag-pennsylvania-house-of-representatives","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-council","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-shaykayarira-delrio-gonzalez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}