People of the State of California v. Coast Runner Industries, Inc., et al.

The defendants in this case, Defense Distributed, Ghost Gunner, and Coast Runner, make, sell, and market CNC (computer numerical control) milling machines specifically designed to enable users to make firearms. Unlike 3D-printers, which build objects by layering material, CNC milling machines use subtractive manufacturing, progressively removing material from a solid block to produce a finished product; in this case, a deadly, unserialized firearm.

The Ghost Gunner and Coast Runner machines allow anyone—including someone who cannot lawfully purchase a firearm—to make and assemble an unlimited arsenal of ghost guns capable of eluding law enforcement tracing at crime scenes.

The thrust of the danger from ghost guns lies not only in their ease of production, but in the importance of serial numbers for law enforcement agencies like the ATF, who use them to trace guns recovered at crime scenes. Tracing thereby enables them to solve crimes, uncover firearm trafficking, and prevent future gun violence.

In recent years, many communities have seen an explosion in the unregulated and untracked sale of “DIY” ghost gun kits and related products—and, predictably, a parallel surge in the number of these weapons showing up at crime scenes. Between 2017 to 2023, the ATF reported a staggering 1,600% increase in the number of ghost guns recovered by law enforcement nationwide. That translates to 92,702 privately-made, untraceable firearms, assembled without background checks or licenses and increasingly used to commit violent crimes.

Recognizing this crisis, the City and County of San Diego have led the state and the nation in efforts to curb the unchecked spread of ghost guns. In October 2021, the City of San Diego passed an ordinance banning the possession and sale of ghost guns, and in January 2022, the County of San Diego followed suit, passing a similar countywide ordinance. Later that year, California passed AB 1621, a landmark law that effectively banned the sale of CNC milling machines primarily designed and marketed for manufacturing firearms—machines like those sold by the defendants.

This legislation came at a time when the toll of ghost guns in California was becoming impossible to ignore. According to a 2023 report from the California Office of Gun Violence Prevention, the number of ghost guns recovered in connection with crimes in California each year has surged dramatically over the past decade, from 26 total ghost guns recovered in 2015 to 12,894 ghost guns recovered in 2022. 

From the start, the Coast Runner was created and marketed with one goal: to give Defense Distributed a way to sidestep California’s vital gun safety laws—all in pursuit of profit. After a federal court dismissed the company’s lawsuit challenging one of those laws in 2023, Defense Distributed and Ghost Gunner quickly pivoted. They began advertising the Coast Runner as a California-specific version of the Ghost Gunner 3, even going so far as to post a notice on their website informing California customers that if they ordered a Ghost Gunner, they would receive a Coast Runner instead.

This brazen attempt to skirt California law with clever branding and duplicitous marketing isn’t just cynical—it’s dangerous. The Ghost Gunner/Coast Runner machine is an illegal device, explicitly designed, marketed, and sold to enable its users to build untraceable firearms at home, in violation of state gun laws and to the endangerment of all Californians. 

Law enforcement officials in major cities including Los Angeles, Oakland, San Diego, and San Francisco report that ghost guns accounted for 25% to 50% of firearms recovered at crime scenes in 2020 and 2021. And these alarming numbers likely understate the problem, since many law enforcement agencies lack the proper tools or protocols to trace or record ghost gun recoveries. 

The danger posed by ghost guns is real and growing. In 2013, a gunman who had failed a background check murdered five people in Santa Monica using a homemade, unserialized assault rifle assembled from gun parts he purchased online. In 2019, a 16-year-old, who would have been too young to purchase a gun legally, used a ghost gun to kill two students and injure three others at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita.