East Hampton police seized several ghost guns in various stages of assembly, including one fully automatic weapon, and arrested an 18-year-old resident and his grandfather on Monday.
Acting on a tip from a concerned citizen Monday that a local man was making illegal AR-15 rifles, police said they identified Clayton Hobby as a suspect. Police also learned that Hobby’s grandfather, Kerry Schunk, 64, had aided the illegal weapons manufactory, according to a news release sent Tuesday.
The seizures and arrest are part of what police in Connecticut and across the nation say is an increasing problem with untraceable homemade guns.
In addition to AR-15 rifles, East Hampton police said they also found three ghost gun polymer handguns, 15 high capacity magazines and about 1,000 rounds of ammunition.
Hobby, of 23 Mountainview Road, faces charges that include the manufacture of a machine gun, three counts each of possession of an assault weapon and criminal possession of a pistol, criminal possession of ammunition, 15 counts of possession of high capacity magazines and risk of injury to a minor. He was being held on bond of $250,000.
Schunk, also of 23 Mountainview Road, faces conspiracy counts on the same charges and interfering with an officer. He was being held on a bond of $100,000.
In Connecticut and the U.S., more untraceable guns are showing up. In New Britain last month, police seized a stockpile of more than 100 homemade guns. Across the country last year, police reported about 20,000 suspected ghost gun seizures to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — 10 times as many as in 2016, according to a statement from the White House.
Authorities in Connecticut are cracking down on those manufacturing the weapons, including targeting the sale of internet kits. Public Safety Commissioner James Rovella told The Courant recently that ghost guns typically are a combination of parts ordered over the internet and homemade parts, including parts made from 3D printers.
“These guns end up in the wrong hands,” Rovella said. “They go around our licensing and firearms statutes. They end up in the wrong hands, and sooner or later they’re going to end up hurting somebody.”
The key to tackling the exponential growth of ghost guns, he said, is to “trace every one of these guns down to the ground” — to determine who made the parts, who ordered them and where they ended up.
President Joe Biden recently announced that his administration will crack down on ghost guns in an effort to combat nationwide gun crime.
The U.S. Department of Justice issued a final rule to rein in the ghost gun problem, banning the business of manufacturing highly accessible ghost guns, such as online-ordered “buy build shoot” kits that can be bought without a background check. These kits, said the White House, allow Americans to make their own guns in less than an hour with supplies they likely already have in their homes.
The new rule affirms that these kits qualify as firearms under the Gun Control Act, meaning their makers must be federally licensed, must run background checks on their buyers and must make their weapons with serial numbers, according to the White House.
Jesse Leavenworth can be reached at jleavenworth@courant.com