How The Far Right Is Escaping Biden’s Attempted Crackdown On ‘Ghost Guns’

When President Joe Biden announced has long prohibited content intended to instruct viewers on how to make firearms, including ghost guns or 3D printed guns,” Malon said.

But a removal from YouTube doesn’t mean users won’t find other ways to share tips and tricks on how to build ghost guns. Print Shoot Repeat, a prominent page that shares building plans, memes and other 3D-printed firearm tips, announced in August that it had deleted some videos after seeing other channels get removed from YouTube. Print Shoot Repeat instead instructed followers to go to its page on Odysee, a website dubbed the “YouTube of the far right” by extremist experts and littered with ghost gun plans, prints and parts.

“They can do what they need to without coming under government purview. They love challenges like this and they want to develop more technologies,” said Colin Clarke, a senior research fellow and director of research at the Soufan Group, a security consulting firm.

“We underestimate these folks too often when there are talented smart people investing in these technologies,” said Clarke, who focuses on domestic and global extremism at Soufan. “I would caution against underestimating people like this — they have proven time and time again that they are quite capable.”

The “million-dollar question,” Lewis said, is whether it’s even possible to enact policies that will meaningfully curb the sale of ghost guns and parts.

“It’s a topic that gets a lot of eyes on it whenever a particularly violent act is done with a ghost gun, but eyes are fleeting and there is little evidence to suggest a sea change to the government’s approach to ghost guns or firearms writ large is forthcoming,” Lewis said. “Realistically, in the absence of meaningful executive or legislative branch efforts to cut to the core of this issue, this becomes a law enforcement triaging problem.”

A rise in death threats to law enforcement has been an ongoing issue — and it has only worsened since the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago this summer to find classified documents former President Donald Trump had kept there. “The allure to violent extremists has remained a point of concern in recent years, and I expect this to continue as anti-democratic and collapse narratives remain central motivators for these actors,” Lewis said.

Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, who often consults with the federal government in developing strategy, told HuffPost that federal law enforcement is aware of the change in extremist activity in recent years, and of the threats against their officers. But, he said, tackling the issue has proved daunting.

“We’ve seen an escalation of threats against government officials of all stripes,” Levin said. “What remains to be seen is how chases turn into charges and trials.”

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who has been an outspoken advocate for gun control since the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in his state, wrote a public letter to the ATF in September to offer suggestions and request information on the agency’s plans ― specifically, how the ATF intends to use “these new and expanded criminal penalties to prevent gun violence and illegal gun sales.”

Murphy emphasized the online marketplace as a major source of illegal activity. “It is critically important that ATF’s strategy focus on the source of illegal guns and not just the individuals breaking the law,” he wrote. “I would appreciate an update on how ATF intends to investigate online gun marketplaces for illegal activity and ensure that the operators of those sites are not consciously disregarding the harm they are causing.”

The ATF has not responded to Murphy’s letter, but told HuffPost that it will. Neither the FBI nor the ATF has released any public plans for how to tackle domestic extremists’ use of ghost guns outside of the new regulation.

“ATF is aware of longstanding anti-government sentiment towards ATF and other government agencies; however, ATF does not discuss the techniques used in its investigations of violent criminal activity,” an agency spokesperson told HuffPost.

The FBI declined to answer HuffPost’s questions about what system is in place to track threats, future plans to curb extremism-related crime, and statistics on attacks on law enforcement.

“While we do not have a comment on the specific questions, the FBI takes all potential threats seriously, including threats to law enforcement,” the bureau said. “We work closely with our law enforcement partners to assess and respond to these threats.”

“I talk to a lot of folks in the bureau, and I know there are people who are concerned,” Clarke said. “They’re probably frustrated that law isn’t more mature and developed because they’ll be blamed if something goes wrong.”

But, Clarke added, the far right has a long history of skirting regulations and developing new technologies, and extremist groups will do what they can to evade federal oversight.

“Once legislation is developed, I can nearly guarantee that it’ll be obsolete. These types of technologies move one or two steps before the law does,” he said. “You’re constantly trying to play catch-up.”