I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2698
To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to direct the Department
of Homeland Security to bolster security against threats posed by ghost
guns, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL7, 2025
Mr. T
HOMPSONof Mississippi (for himself, Mr. THOMPSONof California, Mr.
S
WALWELL, Mrs. WATSONCOLEMAN, Mr. CORREA, Mr. THANEDAR, Mr.
M
AGAZINER, Mr. GOLDMANof New York, Mrs. RAMIREZ, Mr. KENNEDY
of New York, Mrs. M
CIVER, Ms. JOHNSONof Texas, Mr. HERNA´NDEZ,
Ms. P
OU, Mr. CARTERof Louisiana, and Mr. GARCIAof California) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Home-
land Security, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a
period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for
consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the com-
mittee concerned
A BILL
To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to direct
the Department of Homeland Security to bolster security
against threats posed by ghost guns, and for other pur-
poses.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Bolstering Security 2
Against Ghost Guns Act’’. 3
SEC. 2. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY POLICY TO 4
BOLSTER SECURITY AGAINST THREATS 5
POSED BY GHOST GUNS. 6
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subtitle H of title VIII of the 7
Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 451 et seq.) 8
is amended by adding at the end the following new section: 9
‘‘SEC. 890E. POLICY TO BOLSTER SECURITY AGAINST 10
THREATS POSED BY GHOST GUNS. 11
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than one year after the 12
date of the enactment of this section, the Secretary, acting 13
through the Under Secretary for Strategy, Policy, and 14
Plans of the Department, shall issue a Department-wide 15
strategy to bolster security against threats posed by ghost 16
guns, in order to improve prevention, preparedness, and 17
response to homeland security threats, such as an act of 18
terrorism or targeted violence, associated with ghost guns. 19
Such strategy shall identify the following activities: 20
‘‘(1) Across the Department related to ghost 21
guns and approaches to enhance cross-component in-22
formation sharing and collaboration. 23
‘‘(2) With Federal, State, local, Tribal, and ter-24
ritorial partners related to ghost guns and ap-25
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•HR 2698 IH
proaches to enhance the Department’s collaboration 1
with such partners. 2
‘‘(b) C
ROSS-BORDERTHREATS.—Not later than 180 3
days after the date of the enactment of this section, the 4
Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis of the De-5
partment, in coordination with the Commissioner of U.S. 6
Customs and Border Protection, the Director of U.S. Im-7
migration and Customs Enforcement, and the heads of 8
other appropriate Federal partners, shall develop and dis-9
seminate a homeland security threat assessment regarding 10
cross-border threats associated with United States-sourced 11
ghost guns and partially complete frames and receivers, 12
with special attention to ghost guns and partially complete 13
frames and receivers used by transnational criminal orga-14
nizations involved in illicit activity that pose a security 15
threat to the border. 16
‘‘(c) U
NITEDSTATESSECRETSERVICEACTIVI-17
TIES.—Not later than one year after the date of the enact-18
ment of this section, the Director of the United States 19
Secret Service, acting through the Chief of the National 20
Threat Assessment Center, in coordination with appro-21
priate Federal partners, shall carry out research and issue 22
public reports that provide guidance regarding how to pre-23
vent, prepare for, and respond to homeland security 24
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threats, such as an act of terrorism or targeted violence, 1
associated with ghost guns. 2
‘‘(d) T
RANSPORTATION SECURITYADMINISTRATION 3
A
CTIVITIES.—Not later than one year after the date of 4
the enactment of this section and annually thereafter, the 5
Administrator of the Transportation Security Administra-6
tion shall report to the Committee on Homeland Security 7
of the House of Representatives and the Committee on 8
Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate re-9
garding the number of violations of subsection (a) of sec-10
tion 1540.111 of title 49, Code of Federal Regulations, 11
and any other incidents involving the unauthorized car-12
riage of a firearm at a passenger screening checkpoint, 13
including information regarding which such violations and 14
incidents during the period of time covered by each such 15
report were committed by individuals while receiving expe-16
dited screening, which were repeat offenses, and which in-17
volved a ghost gun. Such reporting shall also include infor-18
mation regarding trends in the rates of violations and inci-19
dents on a per passenger basis, as well as a description 20
of Transportation Security Administration efforts during 21
the period of time covered by each such report to increase 22
public awareness of the prohibition described in such sub-23
section (a) of section 1540.111 of title 49, Code of Federal 24
Regulations. 25
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‘‘(e) U.S. IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMSENFORCE-1
MENTACTIVITIES.—Not later than one year after the date 2
of the enactment of this section, the Director of U.S. Im-3
migration and Customs Enforcement, acting through the 4
Executive Associate Director of Homeland Security Inves-5
tigations, shall, in coordination with the Commissioner of 6
U.S. Customs and Border Protection and appropriate 7
Federal partners, carry out the following: 8
‘‘(1) Prepare an analysis that includes data 9
from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and 10
Explosives and other Federal partners regarding 11
homeland security threats, including border security 12
threats, and cross-border illicit smuggling trends and 13
patterns associated with United States-sourced fire-14
arms, including ghost guns, recovered in Mexico. 15
‘‘(2) Research and develop a mechanism to 16
share aggregated Federal information regarding 17
United States-sourced firearms, including ghost 18
guns, recovered in Mexico in support of carrying out 19
the strategy under subsection (a). 20
‘‘(3) Develop performance measures to assess 21
the effectiveness of U.S. Immigration and Customs 22
Enforcement activities aimed at combatting home-23
land security threats, including border security 24
threats, and illicit cross-border activities involving 25
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United States-sourced firearms, including ghost 1
guns. 2
‘‘(f) O
FFICE OFINTELLIGENCE AND ANALYSISRE-3
PORTS.— 4
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 5
after the date of the enactment of this subsection 6
and annually thereafter, the Under Secretary for In-7
telligence and Analysis of the Department, in con-8
sultation with the Director of the Federal Bureau of 9
Investigation, shall develop a report assessing home-10
land security threats of ghost guns and partially 11
complete frames and receivers associated with a for-12
eign terrorist organization or other individual in fur-13
therance of an act of terrorism or targeted violence. 14
Each such report shall— 15
‘‘(A) assess the range of sources for ac-16
quiring, manufacturing, and trafficking ghost 17
guns and partially complete frames and receiv-18
ers; 19
‘‘(B) identify each type of homeland secu-20
rity threat associated with ghost guns and par-21
tially complete frames and receivers; and 22
‘‘(C) specify the level of threat associated 23
with each threat identified pursuant to para-24
graph (2). 25
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‘‘(2) DISSEMINATION OF REPORTS .—Consistent 1
with the protection of classified and confidential un-2
classified information, the Under Secretary for Intel-3
ligence and Analysis shall— 4
‘‘(A) submit the initial report required 5
under paragraph (1) to Federal, State, local, 6
Tribal, and territorial law enforcement officials, 7
including officials who operate within State, 8
local, and regional fusion centers under the De-9
partment of Homeland Security State, Local, 10
and Regional Fusion Center Initiative estab-11
lished by section 210A; and 12
‘‘(B) submit each report required under 13
paragraph (1) to the appropriate congressional 14
committees. 15
‘‘(g) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 16
‘‘(1) A
CT OF TERRORISM .—The term ‘act of 17
terrorism’ has the meaning given such term in sec-18
tion 3077 of title 18, United States Code. 19
‘‘(2) A
PPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT -20
TEES.—The term ‘appropriate congressional com-21
mittees’ means— 22
‘‘(A) the Permanent Select Committee on 23
Intelligence, the Committee on Homeland Secu-24
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rity, and the Committee on the Judiciary of the 1
House of Representatives; and 2
‘‘(B) the Select Committee on Intelligence, 3
the Committee on Homeland Security and Gov-4
ernmental Affairs, and the Committee on the 5
Judiciary of the Senate. 6
‘‘(3) D
OMESTIC TERRORISM .—The term ‘do-7
mestic terrorism’ has the meaning given such term 8
in section 2331 of title 18, United States Code. 9
‘‘(4) F
IREARM.—The term ‘firearm’ has the 10
meaning given such term in section 921 of title 18, 11
United States Code. 12
‘‘(5) F
OREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION .— 13
The term ‘foreign terrorist organization’ means an 14
organization designated as a foreign terrorist organi-15
zation under section 219 of the Immigration and 16
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1189). 17
‘‘(6) G
HOST GUN.—The term ‘ghost gun’ has 18
the meaning given the term ‘privately made firearm’ 19
in section 478.11 of title 27, Code of Federal Regu-20
lations. 21
‘‘(7) T
ARGETED VIOLENCE .—The term ‘tar-22
geted violence’ has the meaning given such term in 23
section 6418 of the National Defense Authorization 24
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Act for Fiscal Year 2022 (Public Law 117–81; 6 1
U.S.C. 124h–1). 2
‘‘(8) P
ARTIALLY COMPLETE FRAME OR RE -3
CEIVER.—The term ‘partially complete frame or re-4
ceiver’ means a partially complete, disassembled, or 5
nonfunctional frame or receiver, as such term is de-6
scribed in section 478.12(c) of title 27, Code of Fed-7
eral Regulations.’’. 8
(b) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of contents 9
in section 1(b) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 is 10
amended by inserting after the item relating to section 11
890D the following new item: 12
‘‘Sec. 890E. Policy to bolster security against threats posed by ghost guns.’’.
Æ
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