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No ID? Spike reported in untraceable weapons · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  No ID. Spike reported an untraceable weapons. Written by Tom Collins. This
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  article is being read by an automated voice, brought to up by
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  Everlet. A Streator man entered a not-guilty plea early November to possessing
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  a 380-pistol that had its serial number altered. Jaxon Hallowell faces up
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  to five years in prison if convicted at a trial set for
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  Jan. 4.
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  If he is convicted, he won’t find a sympathetic ear with La
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  Salle County State’s Attorney Joe Navarro. Though the Marine Corps veteran has
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  run on a Second Amendment platform and is a firearms enthusiast, Navarro
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  brooks no patience for anyone who renders a gun untraceable.
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  And Navarro said he’s seeing, of late, too many firearms with their
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  ID numbers scrubbed or of ghost guns, which can be assembled from
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  the parts of disparate firearms leaving them unmarked and untraceable, as well.
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  I think it is concerning, Navarro said of the recent spate of
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  untraceable firearms. It speaks of the obvious availability of the weapons.
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  Hallowell was charged Oct. 14 after Streator police conducted a traffic stop
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  that yielded a 380 pistol with its serial number altered, as well
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  as a ghost gun with a green laser sight. Prosecutors allege they
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  obtained previous video evidence linking Hallowell to the ghost gun.
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  Also pending is an ex-convict from California awaits sentencing Nov. 12 for
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  possessing a ghost gun seized at Love’s Travel Stop in Oglesby. Courtney
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  L. Harris, 50, of San Bernardino faces up to 30 years for
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  unlawful possession of a weapon by a repeat felony offender.
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  Peru police are investigating a weapon seizure from Oct. 25. A Spring
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  Valley man faces preliminary charges Navarro’s office will have the final say
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  of aggravated unlawful possession of a weapon and defacing identification marks of
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  a firearm.
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  And an Ottawa man was sentenced to a short prison sentence after
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  police seized, from a child’s bedroom, a stolen handgun along with a
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  9-mm pistol that had its serial number defaced. Evan Boswell recently completed
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  part of an 18-month sentence.
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  La Salle County Sheriff Adam Diss agreed the recent spate is troubling,
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  though he was quick to point out the conjoining trends of defacing
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  ID numbers and assembling or possessing ghost guns are in some ways
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  separate in nature.
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  Illinois lawmakers long ago made it a felony to deface or remove
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  a serial number from a firearm. No suspect can claim any lawful
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  right to possess one.
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  Ghost guns have a more intricate and quasi-legal background, however. At one
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  time, it was widely legal to purchase and possess an 80% firearm
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  kit, so named because the product lacked the final 20% of machine
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  work to the receiver portion of the firearm drilling, cutting, milling, etc.
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  Needed for it to become functional.
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  In 2022, however, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms reclassified the
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  80% kits to require serial ID numbers. The states, in turn, have
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  authority to regulate them.
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  Prior to the ATF changing the rule, Diss said, people were well
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  within their constitutional rights to build a firearm at home and you
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  still legally can build one at home from scratch. The law effectively
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  prohibits the sale of anything marketed as an 80% receiver anymore.
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  Defacing a firearm has always been illegal always, always, Diss said. But
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  the 80-percenters that you’re seeing? Before 2022, they weren’t illegal; but they
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  kind of dried up after that.
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  What you’re seeing out there are remnants from the days when you
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  could buy them, he said. The problem is the bad guys were
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  getting them.