Etymology

ghost gun

Today it means: A gun without serial numbers that cannot be easily tracked, especially a homemade gun built with nonregistered, partially finished, or 3D printed components. Full definition →

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The story

From ghost + gun. Derived from the fact that these firearms are unserialized, difficult to trace, and often remain invisible to the tracking and regulation covering traditionally manufactured firearms. First use appears c. 2001 in Sunday People.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.