Untraceable Firearms Act of 2021
Bill: S.1558 | Sponsor: Sen. Blumenthal, Richard (D-CT)
Policy area: Crime and Law Enforcement

Summary:
Untraceable Firearms Act of 2021
This bill establishes a federal statutory framework to regulate the manufacture, sale, offer to sell, transfer, purchase, and receipt of ghost guns (i.e., guns without serial numbers).
Additionally, the bill revises the federal statutory framework regulating the manufacture, possession, sale, import, shipment, delivery, receipt, and transfer of undetectable firearms. Among the revisions, the bill defines undetectable firearm as a firearm without a major component wholly made of detectable material.

To amend chapter 44 of title 18, United States Code, to ensure that all 
            firearms are traceable, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Untraceable Firearms Act of 2021''.

SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    It is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) without the enactment of this Act, the Bureau of 
        Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has the authority to 
        regulate ghost guns (as defined in section 921(a) of title 18, 
        United States Code, as amended by section 3 of this Act) and 
        unfinished frames and receivers; and
            (2) the purpose of this Act is to clarify and strengthen 
        such authority.

SEC. 3. REQUIREMENT THAT ALL FIREARMS BE TRACEABLE.

    (a) Definitions.--Section 921(a) of title 18, United States Code, 
is amended--
            (1) in paragraph (10), by adding at the end the following: 
        ``The term `manufacturing firearms' shall include assembling a 
        functional firearm or molding, machining, or 3D printing a 
        frame or receiver, and shall not include making or fitting 
        special barrels, stocks, or trigger mechanisms to firearms.'';
            (2) by inserting after paragraph (29) the following:
    ``(30)(A) The term `frame or receiver'--
            ``(i) means a part of a weapon that provides or is intended 
        to provide the housing or structure to hold or integrate 1 or 
        more fire control components, even if pins or other attachments 
        are required to connect those components to the housing or 
        structure;
            ``(ii) includes a frame or receiver, blank, casting, or 
        machined body, that requires modification, including machining, 
        drilling, filing or molding, to be used as part of a functional 
        firearm, and which is designed and intended to be used in the 
        assembly of a functional firearm, unless the piece of material 
        has had--
                    ``(I) its size or external shape altered solely to 
                facilitate transportation or storage; or
                    ``(II) solely its chemical composition altered.
    ``(B) For purposes of subparagraph (A)(i), if a weapon with more 
than 1 part that provides the housing or a structure designed to hold 
or integrate 1 or more fire control or essential components, each such 
part shall be considered a frame or receiver, unless the Attorney 
General has provided otherwise by regulation with respect to the 
specific make and model of weapon on or before January 1, 2022.''; and
            (3) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(36) The term `ghost gun'--
            ``(A) means a firearm, including a frame or receiver, that 
        lacks a unique serial number engraved or cast on the frame or 
        receiver by a licensed manufacturer or importer in accordance 
        with this chapter; and
            ``(B) does not include--
                    ``(i) a firearm that has been rendered permanently 
                inoperable;
                    ``(ii) a firearm identified by means of a unique 
                serial number assigned by a State agency and engraved 
                or cast on the receiver or frame of the weapon before 
                the effective date of the Untraceable Firearms Act of 
                2021 in accordance with a State law;
                    ``(iii) a firearm manufactured or imported before 
                December 16, 1968; or
                    ``(iv) a firearm identified as provided for under 
                section 5842 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.
    ``(37) The term `fire control component'--
            ``(A) means a component necessary for the firearm to 
        initiate or complete the firing sequence; and
            ``(B) includes a hammer, bolt or breechblock, cylinder, 
        trigger mechanism, firing pin, striker, and slide rails.''.
    (b) Prohibition; Requirements.--Section 922 of title 18, United 
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(aa)(1) The Congress finds and declares the following:
            ``(A) Firearms tracing is the systematic tracking of the 
        movement of a firearm recovered by law enforcement officials 
        from the first sale of a firearm by the manufacturer or 
        importer through the distribution chain (including the 
        wholesaler and retailer) to the first retail purchaser.
            ``(B) Law enforcement agencies across the country work with 
        the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to 
        trace firearms and thereby obtain investigative leads in the 
        fight against violent crime and terrorism.
            ``(C) The ability of law enforcement agencies to trace a 
        firearm is dependent on the serial number or other marks on the 
        firearm that identify the manufacturer or importer who 
        manufactured or imported the firearm and that are unique to the 
        firearm.
            ``(D) Interstate gun trafficking interferes with lawful 
        commerce in firearms and significantly contributes to gun 
        crime. Of the 254,700 firearms traced by the Bureau of Alcohol, 
        Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in 2018, 71,910 of those 
        firearms were originally sold by a licensed firearms dealer in 
        a State other than the State where the firearms were recovered. 
        These guns made up 28.2 percent of all firearm recoveries in 
        2018.
            ``(E) Even before the sale of a firearm, the gun, its 
        component parts, and the raw materials from which they are made 
        have considerably moved in interstate commerce.
            ``(F) If unserialized and untraceable firearms may be 
        constructed and transported freely from State to State, 
        ordinary citizens and foreign visitors may fear to travel to or 
        through certain parts of the country due to concern about 
        violent crime and gun violence, and law enforcement agencies 
        may be unable to address it.
    ``(2)(A) Except as provided in subparagraph (B), it shall be 
unlawful for any person to manufacture, sell, offer to sell, transfer, 
purchase, or receive a ghost gun in or affecting interstate or foreign 
commerce.
    ``(B) Subparagraph (A) shall not apply to--
            ``(i) the manufacture of a firearm by a licensed 
        manufacturer if the licensed manufacturer complies with section 
        923(i) before selling or transferring the firearm to another 
        person;
            ``(ii) the offer to sell, sale, or transfer of a firearm 
        to, or purchase or receipt of a firearm by, a licensed 
        manufacturer or importer before the date that is 30 months 
        after the date of enactment of the Untraceable Firearms Act of 
        2021; or
            ``(iii) transactions between licensed manufacturers and 
        importers on any date.
    ``(3) It shall be unlawful for a person other than a licensed 
manufacturer or importer to engrave or cast a serial number on a 
firearm in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce unless 
specifically authorized by the Attorney General.
    ``(4) Beginning on the date that is 30 months after the date of 
enactment of the Untraceable Firearms Act of 2021, it shall be unlawful 
for any person other than a licensed manufacturer or importer to 
knowingly possess a ghost gun in or affecting interstate or foreign 
commerce.
    ``(5) Beginning on the date that is 30 months after the date of 
enactment of the Untraceable Firearms Act of 2021, it shall be unlawful 
for any person other than a licensed manufacturer or importer to 
possess a ghost gun in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce with 
the intent to sell or transfer the ghost gun with or without further 
manufacturing or to manufacture a firearm with the ghost gun.
    ``(6)(A) It shall be unlawful for any person to sell, offer to 
sell, or transfer, in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, to 
any person other than a licensed manufacturer a machine that has the 
sole or primary function of manufacturing firearms.
    ``(B) Except as provided in subparagraph (A), beginning on the date 
that is 180 days after the date of enactment of the Untraceable 
Firearms Act of 2021, it shall be unlawful for any person other than a 
licensed manufacturer to possess, purchase, or receive, in or affecting 
interstate or foreign commerce, a machine that has the sole or primary 
function of manufacturing firearms.
    ``(C) Subparagraph (B) shall not apply to a person who is engaged 
in the business of selling manufacturing equipment to a licensed 
manufacturer who possesses a machine with the intent to sell or 
transfer the machine to a licensed manufacturer.''.
    (c) Requirements.--
            (1) Removal of serial numbers.--Section 922(k) of title 18, 
        United States Code, is amended--
                    (A) by striking ``importer's or manufacturer's'' 
                each place it appears; and
                    (B) by inserting ``authorized by this chapter or 
                under State law'' before ``removed''.
            (2) Licensed importers and manufacturers.--Section 923(i) 
        of title 18, United States Code, is amended--
                    (A) by inserting ``(1)'' before ``Licensed''; and
                    (B) by adding at the end the following: ``The 
                serial number shall be engraved or cast on the frame or 
                receiver in a manner sufficient to identify the firearm 
                and the manufacturer or importer that put the serial 
                number on the firearm.
    ``(2)(A) Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of the 
Untraceable Firearms Act of 2021, the Attorney General shall prescribe 
regulations for engraving a unique serial number onto a ghost gun.
    ``(B) The regulations prescribed under subparagraph (A) shall--
            ``(i) allow an owner of a firearm described in subparagraph 
        (A) to have a unique serial number engraved on the firearm by a 
        licensed manufacturer or importer; and
            ``(ii) require that a serial number be engraved on the 
        frame or receiver in a manner sufficient to identify the 
        firearm and the manufacturer or importer that put the serial 
        number on the firearm.
    ``(C) The regulations authorized under this paragraph shall expire 
on the date that is 30 months after the date of enactment of the 
Untraceable Firearms Act of 2021.''.
    (d) Penalties.--Section 924 of title 18, United States Code, is 
amended--
            (1) in subsection (a)(1)(B), by striking ``or (q)'' and 
        inserting ``(q), (aa)(2), (aa)(3), (aa)(5), or (aa)(6)'';
            (2) in subsection (c)
                    (A) in paragraph (1)--
                            (i) in subparagraph (A), in the matter 
                        preceding clause (i), by inserting 
                        ``functional'' before ``firearm'' each place it 
                        appears;
                            (ii) in subparagraph (B), in the matter 
                        preceding clause (i), by inserting 
                        ``functional'' before ``firearm''; and
                            (iii) in subparagraph (D)(ii), by inserting 
                        ``functional'' before ``firearm''; and
                    (B) in paragraph (4), by striking ``all or part of 
                the firearm'' and all that follows through ``person.'' 
                and inserting the following: ``all or part of the 
                functional firearm, or otherwise make the presence of 
                the functional firearm known to another person, in 
                order to intimidate that person, regardless of whether 
                the functional firearm is directly visible to that 
                person.'';
            (3) in subsection (d)(1), by striking ``or (k)'' and 
        inserting ``(k), (aa)(2), (aa)(3), (aa)(5), or (aa)(6)'';
            (4) in subsection (e)(1), by inserting ``through the 
        possession of a functional firearm'' before ``and has three''; 
        and
            (5) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(q) A person who violates section 922(aa)(4) shall--
            ``(1) in the case of the first violation by the person, be 
        fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 1 year, or 
        both; or
            ``(2) in the case of any subsequent violation by the 
        person, be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 5 
        years, or both.''.

SEC. 4. MODERNIZATION OF THE PROHIBITION ON UNDETECTABLE FIREARMS.

    Section 922(p) of title 18, United States Code, is amended--
            (1) in paragraph (1)--
                    (A) in the matter preceding subparagraph (A), by 
                striking ``any firearm'';
                    (B) by amending subparagraph (A) to read as 
                follows:
            ``(A) an undetectable firearm; or''; and
                    (C) in subparagraph (B), by striking ``any major 
                component of which, when subjected to inspection by the 
                types of x-ray machines commonly used at airports, does 
                not generate'' and inserting the following: ``a major 
                component of a firearm which, if subjected to 
                inspection by the types of detection devices commonly 
                used at airports for security screening, would not 
                generate'';
            (2) in paragraph (2)--
                    (A) by amending subparagraph (A) to read as 
                follows:
            ``(A) the term `undetectable firearm' means a firearm, as 
        defined in section 921(a)(3)(A), of which no major component is 
        wholly made of detectable material;'';
                    (B) by striking subparagraph (B) and inserting the 
                following:
            ``(B) the term `major component', with respect to a 
        firearm--
                    ``(i) means the slide or cylinder or the frame or 
                receiver of the firearm; and
                    ``(ii) in the case of a rifle or shotgun, includes 
                the barrel of the firearm; and''; and
                    (C) by striking subparagraph (C) and all that 
                follows through the end of the undesignated matter 
                following subparagraph (C) and inserting the following:
            ``(C) the term `detectable material' means any material 
        that creates a magnetic field equivalent to or more than 3.7 
        ounces of 17-4 pH stainless steel.'';
            (3) in paragraph (3)--
                    (A) in the first sentence, by inserting ``, 
                including a prototype,'' after ``of a firearm''; and
                    (B) by striking the second sentence; and
            (4) in paragraph (5), by striking ``shall not apply to any 
        firearm which'' and all that follows and inserting the 
        following: ``shall not apply to--
            ``(A) any firearm received by, in the possession of, or 
        under the control of the United States; or
            ``(B) the manufacture, importation, possession, transfer, 
        receipt, shipment, or delivery of a firearm by a licensed 
        manufacturer or licensed importer pursuant to a contract with 
        the United States.''.
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