Ghost Guns Offer Unique Threat

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Cody Wilson is taking aim at gun control.

"We are trying to affect American gun politics," the 29-year-old offers.

He's trying to forge a new future for firearms by removing the barriers for access and ownership.

"We will force a kind of respect," Wilson said. "Political or otherwise upon the people's free and universal access to arms."

Wilson made history by developing the first 3D printed single shot handgun in 2013 called The Liberator. His mission is to create the world's first Wiki weapon and share the plans of the 3D printed gun on the internet.

"We were shut down like two days after that pistol was developed then released," he said.

As he continues fighting the State Department in court, his company, Defense Distributed in Austin, launched a new operation.

"The government will shut down one project. We start up another," he said.

Today, Wilson makes what he calls the Ghost Gunner milling machine. He sells this machine that precisely drills the holes in a metal piece called a lower receiver so you can build an AR-15 in your garage.

"I feel confident that there are at least 20-thousand AR-15's out there that wouldn't be out there without this machine and there's not strings on them right," he said. "You don't know where they are."

You don't know where they are because there are no serial numbers and no way to trace it.

"Without a serial number we can't trace that firearm, which makes it very difficult for us to locate the person out there committing the act of violence," said Peter Forcelli, the Special Agent in Charge for the Miami Field Division. "We have a violent crime problem and we are doing our best to try and make our community safer."

Building a gun without a serial number is perfectly legal - you just can't sell them.

"I imagine as word catches on we may see more and more," Forcelli said.

Wilson says it's inevitable that ghost guns will end up at crime scenes and he says there are not a lot of them out there.

"It's still completely outside the norm for gun crimes to involve these types of weapons," said Wilson.

Wilson thinks it's important that all citizens have the right to guns despite any added threat to public safety. And he will continue to push back on federal rules.