As the weather warms up, unsecured firearms remain an issue of top priority for the Raleigh Police Department.
In the last year, 1,424 guns were confiscated. Of those weapons, 38 were considered ghost guns.
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“It’s a weapon that you can build by using either a kit or even a 3D-printed machine,” Lt. David Davis said. “It’s not going to have any identifiers on it like a serial number and that makes it a little bit more difficult for law enforcement to trace.”
That can make them more dangerous for law enforcement.
“Anybody [who] is looking to commit a criminal offense, thinking I have a weapon now that’s untraceable,” Davis said. “It’s not necessarily untraceable, especially with these new rules.”
He’s pointing to federal legislation put in place in 2022. It essentially revealed the ghost, regulating gun-making kits and other gun parts in the same fashion as traditional firearms. It requires background checks and record-keeping the same as any other firearm and, but as long as the firearm is “detectable” as defined by the Gun Control Act, it does not require a serial number.
“I think it’s a really good federal floor,” Rep. Phil Rubin, D-Wake County, said. “The ATF regulations cover these gun kits a little bit more, but states like California and Maryland have done increased measures on top of that and have seen the number of ghost guns confiscated drop by like a quarter.”
Rubin and fellow Democratic lawmakers have been pushing for reforms on a state level. There were five gun control bills with ghost gun restrictions presented in the 2023-2024 legislative session, though none received a committee hearing.
And it was more of the same during this session. House Bill 545, looking to ban ghost guns and undetectable guns, has gone nowhere since its first reading on March 31, 2025.
“That’s not going to stop us from putting forward the solutions that we think are right for North Carolina,” Rubin said. “We’re seeing thousands of these showing up at crime scenes and because we’re on the I-95 corridor, we’re seeing these showing up in violent crimes and domestic violence.”
But when guns are fired, they leave an imprint on the shell casing that’s unique to that firearm, similar to a thumbprint.
In March 2025, Raleigh police arrested a man after he ran from a disturbance. They located a 9-millimeter ghost gun on him and confiscated it. When running it through a test, it matched shell casings from three different shootings.
The shell casings were gathered from incidents in March, August and November 2024, where investigators collected more than 120 shell casings in total. Some of those shell casings were fired from that gun.
“That’s just proof right there that, even though you have a ghost gun, trust me, you can’t just go and use it to commit a criminal offense,” Lt. Davis said. “We’re going to be able to connect the dots and you’re going to be charged accordingly."
Earlier this month, RPD was investigating a Raleigh man for allegedly selling marijuana. He was arrested and, during a search, law enforcement found he was in possession of two ghost guns.
“As soon as we get possession of that weapon, we can still trace,” Davis said. “Test fire it, look at the ballistics and tie it into other incidents that have occurred throughout the city.”
Raleigh police haven’t revealed if either gun is connected to other shootings they’ve investigated.
It’s helpful, but Rubin says it’s not enough.
“You might be able to say the same gun was used in this crime and this crime and that’s helpful,” he said. “But with serialized firearms, you can find out where that gun was purchased, the history of it, if it was stolen, which is its own crime, and that’s a key lever for prosecuting gun crimes as well.”
The sentiment is echoed by Raleigh police.
“It makes it difficult for law enforcement to be able to trace back to the origins of how that weapon was purchased,” Davis said. “But like a traditional firearm, when you’re investigating a shooting incident, you can still look at the ballistics and be able to tie that weapon to other instances that may have happened.”
Stolen firearms pose a greater threat, according to Davis. Raleigh police say 432 guns were stolen from vehicles last year, a slight improvement (8.3%) from 2024 when 471 were stolen.
“We just want to make sure that our community members are taking the proper precautions to protect themselves and their property from being stolen,” Lt. Davis said. “Follow our 9:00 p.m. routine. There are plenty of tips that you can find on the city’s website as well about proper gun storage. We just really hope that everybody kind of buys into that so we don’t have another spree like we did last summer.”
