Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker was joined by Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel and other city leaders on Wednesday afternoon to discuss details of a recent settlement with two companies that officials said were "among the largest suppliers of ghost guns confiscated in Philadelphia."
These settlement agreements resolve a lawsuit that the city had with Polymer80 Inc. and JSD Supply, which Parker said during her celebration of 100 days in office, have been responsible for 90% of ghost guns in Philadelphia.
"We are one step closer to getting ghost guns off our streets and holding gun dealers accountable," Parker said in the past.
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Ghost guns are firearms that are often made of plastic polymers and don't have serial numbers and aren't legally registered weapons.
The use of ghost guns has exploded in Philadelphia. Officials recently said ghost guns confiscated at crime scenes grew as much as 311% from 2019 to 2022.
On Wednesday, Parker said that the settlement was "something to be excited about."
“Ghost guns fuel and cause harm to Philadelphians,” said Parker in a statement on the settlement. “This settlement agreement reached by our city Law Department under Solicitor Renee Garcia, her team, and our external legal partners means that the two largest manufacturers and distributors of ghost gun parts can no longer distribute or market them in Philadelphia. That’s a huge win for our public safety efforts.”
Officials said that the city's Law Department filed the lawsuit -- with co-counsel at the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence to Prevent Gun Violence and the Hausfeld law firm -- in May of 2023, alleging that Polymer80 Inc. and JSD Supply perpetuated the gun violence crisis and threatened the public’s right to health and safety by illegally distributing unserialized ghost gun kits in Philadelphia.
These guns come in a kit, Solicitor Renee Garcia said on Wednesday, noting that the manufacturers had been side-stepping legal issues claiming they were only selling weapon parts, not guns.
"The gun parts and kits sold by these companies can be assembled, at home, into fully-functional unserialized firearms, called ghost guns, in as little as 15-minutes with simple household tools," said Garcia. "So, it comes in a kit, but in 15-minutes you've got a gun."
The settlement agreement prohibits Polymer80 from ever advertising or selling ghost gun kits in Philadelphia.
Additionally, the agreement prevents the company from marketing or selling kits in the surrounding counties for four years.
Philadelphia will also receive $1.3 million in compensation in this settlement. Officials said these funds "will be used for efforts to prevent and remediate the harms caused by the gun violence crisis."
The city will receive the payments from Polymer80 over the course of four years, officials said.
The settlement also requires JSD Supply -- which officials called the biggest distributor of ghost guns in Pennsylvania -- to stop selling ghost guns kits to consumers in Pennsylvania for four years.
Eagle Shows, a gun show operated by JSD Supply, will prevent vendors from selling ghost guns at their events for two years, city officials also said.
David Pucino, the deputy chief counsel and legal director at the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence to Prevent Gun Violence, called the settlement the "broadest in terms of the parts that are covered, of any settlement that has been reached in this county."
"It's going to keep this community safer and it is going to save lives," he said.
Commissioner Bethel also celebrated the settlement, saying the ease with which criminals can possess firearms is a "serious issue for all of us."
"Ghost guns have been a nightmare for the City of Philadelphia," said Bethel.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner also commented on the settlement, saying that the weapons this will ban were made "for nothing but crime."
"They should not exist. These guns should not exist," said Krasner, pointing to a table full of ghost guns. "The way they made these guns is they looked at laws to find the loopholes. Every aspect of how these guns are in separate bags and parts, every aspect was to make sure you could put something that kills people on the street in the most unaccountable way possible."
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