San Diego County is suing a company it says is flouting state law by selling milling machines primarily used to create parts used to assemble untraceable “ghost guns.”
The suit accuses Defense Distributed of slapping a new name and paint job on its “Ghost Gunner” milling machine, which is barred from sale in California, instead calling the device “Coast Runner” and illegally marketing and selling in it the state.
“The ‘Coast Runner’ is in fact the Ghost Gunner with a new coat of paint. It has the same internal designs, the same features, and is being marketed for the same purpose: the illegal production of untraceable ghost guns,” the suit alleges, calling the new product a “mere alter ego” of the old.
Filed in San Diego Superior Court on Thursday, the suit is asking a judge to order the company to halt sales of the device in California and levy fines for every day the county alleges state law was violated.
County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer, who has championed several gun-safety regulations, said Friday she found the situation “egregious,” noting the company, from a previous lawsuit, “had already been told that they couldn’t sell their death machines in California.”