♪ ♪
♪ It hurts to be told when you're not very old ♪
MARIANA: Americans and guns go hand in hand.
♪ An outlaw's son ♪
MARIANA: They're part of the country's founding mythology,
and for some citizens, they go to the core of what it means
to be an American.
COWBOY: We're surrounded by a sea of wonderful products to buy.
♪ The son of a gun ♪
MARIANA: Today, the US has nearly 400 million firearms
in circulation.
It's the only country in the world with more guns than people.
All of this is constitutionally protected
and 100% legal.
But a new kind of weapons technology is testing the
limits of America's gun laws.
They're called ghost guns.
Unlicensed, untraceable, and easy to assemble at home.
CODY: Almost everything you see here is just printed on a 3D printer.
MARIANA: Do they ask you any questions?
MARIANA: I want to know who's making them, who's buying them.
Have you sold to criminals?
MARIANA: And how these weapons are getting into the hands of
America's most violent gangs.
CODY: This is a world you will have to live in.
There's no going back.
(gunshots)
(theme music plays)
RYAN: We're searching for ammunition and firearms.
No one inside of this house has any guns registered to
them, but there's likely several guns inside of here.
We don't necessarily anticipate any violence,
but they are meth users and the dope game is unpredictable.
MARIANA: Welcome to the frontlines of the fight
against ghost guns.
Detective Ryan Swetavage is a member of the Alameda County
Sheriff's Office Gang Suppression Unit.
Today, the team is executing a search warrant on the home of
a convicted felon; a home they suspect is being used to
manufacture ghost guns.
RYAN: So when we pull up in front of the house,
try to stay behind a vehicle,
so you're a little bit more protected.
MARIANA: Okay. In case there are shots fired?
RYAN: Correct.
Okay. Here we go.
♪ ♪
(knocking)
This is the Alameda County Sheriff's Office!
Come to the front door with nothing in your hands!
Come on down the stairs.
MARIANA: Oh, somebody just came out.
MAN: Oh, my God.
MARIANA: Over the next couple hours, the team locates an
impressive weapons cache.
That was inside?
RYAN: Yeah. MARIANA: That long one too?
RYAN: Yeah.
So, she's not supposed to have firearms, but this is actually
from a company.
And then they drilled some holes in it, milled it out,
and then completed the gun.
There's no serial number on that plate.
MARIANA: So it's a ghost gun, as well?
RYAN: Correct, yeah.
MARIANA: This is a critical point.
Ghost guns are weapons without serial numbers,
untraceable guns, which pose an enormous challenge
for cops investigating gun violence.
That's crazy.
Did you think you were going to find so many guns?
RYAN: I didn't think we're going to find this many.
I mean, right here, just what we found so far, you know,
about 30% of the guns here are ghosN guns.
MARIANA: This is not an isolated incident.
Illegal ghost gun recoveries are accelerating and there's
a disturbing reason why.
REPORTER (over TV): The 13-year-old was allegedly selling ghost guns.
POLICE (over TV): You can manufacture your own gun.
REPORTER (over TV): And build something that could kill people.
MARIANA: Right now, there are more than 80 companies
selling ghost guns.
MAN: Straight to your door.
MARIANA: Unlike traditional firearms, they can be
purchased without any IDs or background checks.
Buyers get what's called an 80% build kit.
They simply drill a few holes and assemble.
It's like Ikea for lethal weapons.
WOMAN: This is how I've built mine, how will you build yours?
RYAN: This is basically an AR-15 rifle that's been
converted to fire handgun ammunition,
nine-millimeter ammunition.
In this case, we executed a search warrant on someone who
was manufacturing these guns and likely selling them to
gang members.
MARIANA: But you found somebody making their own AR-15s
to sell to gang members on the streets of the United States?
RYAN: Correct, yeah.
If he's going to put guns in the hands of gang members,
he absolutely should not have that anything.
MARIANA: And it's ghost gun technology like this that's
making it possible.
RYAN: This actual device is a mill.
It's an electronic mill.
So you plug that in to a laptop or any sort of computer
and with a software that you can download,
you can finish firearms.
MARIANA: The operation they busted earlier tonight was
using hand drills and dremels to make ghost guns.
RYAN: These are just regular hand tools.
MARIANA: Somewhat primitive compared to this machine,
which allows someone to professionally mill
metal gun parts at home.
So do you mind if I look for,
I'm trying to figure out what company makes this.
RYAN: No. Go for it.
MARIANA: Oh, wow.
A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a
free state, to keep and bear arms.
It's the Bill of Rights that's written here.
Had you seen this?
RYAN: No, I didn't see that.
MARIANA: A little more poking around reveals that the
machine is manufactured by "Defense Distributed,"
a company based 1,500 miles away in Austin, Texas.
CODY: It's like a tradition of ours to put in little Easter eggs.
So we just managed to fit the entire Bill of Rights on this
LED board here.
MARIANA: Really, all of it is here?
CODY: Uh-hmm.
You would never know that, you know, but that's just a little
gift of love from us to you.
MARIANA: This looks like a Star Wars gun almost. Right?
CODY: This is, careful where you point that, but this is
J Stark's FGC.
MARIANA: Oh, this is the, sorry.
CODY: Here's your barrel. Yeah. This is J Stark's FGC-9.
This is the Mark II.
MARIANA: Oh.
CODY: This is (bleep) Gun Control, nine millimeter.
And almost everything you see here is actually just printed
on a 3D printer.
Anyone in the world should be able to make it if they have
the right equipment.
MARIANA: A decade ago, 3D-printed guns like this
were the stuff of science fiction.
CODY: When I see this gun, I see the fulfillment of the
things that I was doing.
MARIANA: So you're proud of it.
CODY: I enjoy it. I love it. Yeah.
It's, I look at it more like a child.
MARIANA: The man I'm speaking with didn't invent this
particular weapon, but he gave birth to the technology
that made it possible.
His name is...
REPORTER (over TV): Cody Wilson.
REPORTER 2 (over TV): Cody Wilson.
REPORTER 3 (over TV): Cody Wilson.
MARIANA: He's the director of Defense Distributed,
one of the country's leading ghost gun manufacturers.
CODY: If you can run a computer, you can run a ghost gun.
MARIANA: Some say Cody is a gun rights activist.
CODY: As long as you have the right to keep and bear arms,
you have the right to make them.
MARIANA: Others call him an anarchist.
REPORTER (over TV): This is about weapons of war being made
in people's living rooms.
CODY: There would be nothing illegal about even felons or
other people getting it.
MARIANA: Wired magazine once labeled him one of
"the 15 most dangerous people in the world."
RICHARD: The new wave of American gun violence.
MARIANA: That's because Cody Wilson was the first person to
build a fully functional, 3D-printed firearm.
CODY: I didn't know how to print a gun.
I didn't know how to use a 3D printer.
MARIANA: Uh-hmm.
CODY: But I knew what I wanted to do.
I wanted to make a Wiki Weapon.
I wanted to, WikiLeaks for guns.
MARIANA: Three-dimensional printers use raw materials
like metal or plastic, depositing them layer after layer
until they create a three-dimensional object.
Today's 3D printers can make just about anything,
from medical prosthetics and children's toys, to furniture
and, of course, firearms.
Cody called his very first creation "The Liberator."
So this was one of the first, what?
Five guns that you printed?
CODY: I would say it's one of the first three Liberators.
MARIANA: Oh, the first three. Wow.
CODY: Ever printed...
MARIANA: And did you, did you actually go out and shoot this one?
CODY: Yeah. You can, in fact, you can still see the dust and the grime and the uh...
MARIANA: You can. Yeah.
CODY: The explosive pNwder burns.
MARIANA: Uh-hmm.
CODY: And this thing has been fired.
MARIANA: In fact, in May of 2013, Cody posted a video of
himself successfully test-firing the Liberator,
then uploaded the gun's design onto the web,
making it accessible to anyone online,
including criminals and terrorists.
It was downloaded nearly 100,000 times.
Were you surprised?
CODY: Yeah. I was like, "Wow. Okay."
I'm, I'm thrown into this world just like you are now.
We live in a world of 3D guns.
MARIANA: It's a world the U.S. Government wasn't happy about,
so they accused Cody of illegally trafficking weapons overseas.
CODY: The fun thing of the law is there's a line.
Before that line, this is a piece of metal.
It might have a funny shape, but it means nothing.
After this line, the ATF says this is a firearm.
MARIANA: Uh-hmm. What do you think of that line?
CODY: If the ATF wants to redraw the line.
MARIANA: Uh-hmm.
CODY: We'll redraw the line too.
MARIANA: Cody sued the U.S. Government and
they ultimately backed down.
So your defense was, it's the right...
CODY: Yeah.
MARIANA: Of free speech to be able to put out this code that makes these guns.
CODY: Uh-hmm. Yeah, exactly.
It's a game. Why can't I play this game?
MARIANA: Right now, the rules of the game say that
any American company selling guns needs
a Federal Firearms License or FFL.
Ghost gun companies don't.
Because they argue, they're not selling guns,
they're selling parts.
Online, I can buy all these parts from you?
Everything?
CODY: Everything you see.
MARIANA: And then I can put it together?
It all comes down to a surprisingly complicated question.
What exactly is a gun?
Every firearm is made up of multiple parts.
Some parts are metal, others are plastic.
But the U.S. Government doesn't regulate
pieces of plastic and metal.
CODY: Who, who can determine, and by what means,
when a piece of metal is a gun,
is more like a gun than not a gun, right?
So a bureaucrat looks at a gun and says, this is when this
becomes a gun.
This is when this becomes a gun.
And these things have no real relation to each other.
MARIANA: For the moment, federal law has decided that
the firearm frame, or lower receiver, is in fact what
makes a gun.
And once a series of holes are drilled into the frame,
it becomes a working firearm and worthy of regulation.
That's how ghost gun companies get away with selling
incomplete, 80% kits because there's still some at-home
assembly required.
We've spoken to a lot of police departments around the country and...
CODY: Yeah.
MARIANA: We know that there are a lot more of ghost guns.
CODY: Yeah.
MARIANA: Showing up in crime scenes.
REPORTER (over TV): The epidemic of gun violence gripping America.
REPORTER (over TV): He built this gun.
REPORTER (over TV): Last year, more than 20,000 people were
killed by a firearm in the United States.
MARIANA: How do you feel about that?
CODY: I'm happy that these police are, you know, I don't know what, finding work.
Be a detective. Do your job.
All right? How is this my problem?
♪ ♪
CODY: This is how you buy, like, a whole Glock.
But what we do ahead of time is, you know, we chop it up.
We make sure that the regulated part is no longer
in the package.
MARIANA: So, the lower receiver isn't here.
CODY: You, you know, you've got one, your one step removed.
Your lower is on a USB.
MARIANA: Wow. CODY: Think about it.
MARIANA: All right. That, this is so crazy to me.
So, you buy this, you've got all the parts you need.
CODY: Yeah.
MARIANA: Except for the lower receiver which, usually, it's the registered part.
CODY: Yeah, yeah. MARIANA: But guess what?
CODY: Yeah.
MARIANA: You have a USB that will teach you how to make a gun.
I'm trying to understand how ghost guns are making their
way into the hands of criminals.
And there's no better person to ask than Cody Wilson.
The man who gave birth to the ghost gun industry.
So, if the federal government,
if the authorities were to open this.
CODY: Yeah.
MARIANA: They, everything is legal here right now.
CODY: I don't see a gun in here. I don't see a gun, sorry.
Nothing in here looks regulated to me.
MARIANA: So it's a way of trying to skirt the law?
CODY: I think it's, you know, more, it's more grand than that, right?
MARIANA: Uh-hmm.
CODY: It's a way of making the law pointless.
This changes the balance of power between the state and
between the individual.
Cheap available guns. Downloadable guns.
3D-printed guns. Guns with no serial numbers.
This is a world you will have to live in.
You know, like, there's no going back.
MARIANA: Cody Wilson calls himself a crypto-anarchist.
His ideological inspiration is WikiLeaks founder and
free speech radical, Julian Assange.
Of course, Cody's focus isn't speech, it's guns.
He advocates for immunity from any government oversight.
But would a world without meaningful gun laws
increase freedom or just fuel anarchy?
How do you feel about the fact that ghost guns are being used
to commit crimes, to kill innocent people?
CODY: Guns kill people.
You know, this is what makes them effective, politically interesting.
MARIANA: Right. But there's a reason why they're using ghost guns, right?
Because they are untraceable,
because they're easy, they're easy.
CODY: Oh, look, I agree.
MARIANA: You can make, you still haven't answered my question though.
How do you feel?
CODY: Excited, empowered.
Right? Capable of delivering more damage.
I think I'll be a bigger problem to the government and
I think, you know, that's what I've always been trying to be.
MARIANA: I think a lot of people would find that
incredibly dangerous, as I'm sure you know.
CODY: Yeah, well, I'm an American.
You know? Move to Finland.
♪ ♪
♪ It hurts to be told ♪
♪ When you're not very old ♪
♪ That you're an outlaw's son ♪
♪ And that you're the son of a gun ♪
MARIANA: It's already incredibly easy to get a gun
in the U.S.
So I want to understand who's buying ghost guns and why.
♪ ♪
Wow, that's a lot of weapons, huh?
MARIANA: Can I hold it?
MARIANA: It's, oh wow.
So it's all, it's 3D-printed, what part of it's, it's the lower receiver?
MARIANA: Do you have a machine, the 3D printer?
MARIANA: And then the rest is just parts that you bought.
MARIANA: My contact tells me to call him "Dutch."
He says he built this AR-15 assault rifle from an
80% parts kit he ordered online,
just like the kits Cody Wilson sells.
(gunshots)
Do they ask you any questions when you're ordering this stuff online?
MARIANA: That's it? DUTCH: Yup.
MARIANA: How many guns do you own?
MARIANA: And how many of them are ghost guns?
MARIANA: That's because Dutch can't buy a traditional firearm.
Why can't you buy it?
MARIANA: Dutch and his friends aren't criminals,
they're kids, teenagers actually.
But because IDs aren't required to order ghost guns,
the companies don't know, or don't care, if they're helping
underage customers acquire an arsenal like this.
MARIANA: Dutch is right.
I've been reporting on black markets for more than 15 years
and guns are a lucrative commodity to the criminal underworld.
Every day they're bought, sold, and smuggled throughout
the United States and around the world.
Now that ghost guns can be ordered online and 3D-printed at home,
I suspect someone, somewhere is taking advantage of this.
So it's almost 9:00 PM.
We're heading to meet one of our contacts.
He's an American, lives here in LA, but is part of a Mexican cartel.
His group has been dealing more and more in, in ghost guns.
Apparently, they're receiving some sort of shipment tonight.
So he's allowed us to come and talk to him and
possibly film part of his operation.
MARIANA: So all of the parts in this gun were ordered from
online websites, completely legal?
MARIANA: I've seen a lot of things in my career,
but this is a first.
Watching two gang members assemble an arsenal by simply
ordering the parts online, grabbing a few tools,
and following the instructions.
So this is a completely untraceable gun?
If you find this on the streets, there's no way that
somebody's going to find out where it came from?
MARIANA: Well, maybe not everybody, but Tiny and Flaco
are members of the Surenos,
a violent Latin-American street gang
whose stronghold is in Southern California.
To arm their gang, they used to have to buy guns from
private sellers or straight up steal them,
but none of the guns I'm looking at tonight are stolen.
How often are you selling guns?
MARIANA: And so, now what happens to these guns?
MARIANA: Oh, there's a buyer on his way right now?
MARIANA: The buyer is eager to see the merchandise,
but less than thrilled about our presence.
♪ ♪
MARIANA: Just miles from my home in Los Angeles,
I'm watching a ghost gun deal go down.
MARIANA: Because these guns don't have serial numbers and
are effectively untraceable, the buyer pays $3,000.
That's three times what similar guns would cost
at a legal firearms store.
(rapping in Spanish).
MARIANA: Do you worry about what ends up happening with these guns?
I mean...
MARIANA: It's a game I'm only beginning to understand.
The following day, Flaco tells me to meet him 100 miles outside the city.
I find him waiting for me in a stolen pickup truck,
with another Sureno he calls "Problem."
But the most explosive intel he shares is that the buyers
I saw last night are in police custody.
Oh, my.
So they used, they used the guns?
Basically, they shot at other people with those guns?
MARIANA: And they were arrested?
MARIANA: Didn't you guys get concerned that that might lead back to you guys?
FLACO: No.
MARIANA: And do you know, did anyone get hurt?
I mean, if he got in trouble, it's because he probably
either injured or killed somebody.
MARIANA: Would you sell him a gun again?
MARIANA: Flaco tells me the demand for his products are skyrocketing.
In fact, he's out here in the middle of nowhere for a very
specific reason, quality control.
(gunshot)
MARIANA: Flaco reminds me that in his world, if a weapon
doesn't work as advertised, the buyer is going to come
looking for the seller and he's going to be pissed.
I mean, I know this is the middle of the desert,
but there's also a lot of people around shooting their own guns.
FLACO: Uh-hmm.
MARIANA: This is not somewhere that makes you nervous?
MARIANA: They're right, the canyon is crawling with legal gun owners.
These two gangsters are hiding in plain sight.
But they're not shooting for fun, like Dutch and his buddies.
They're making sure these weapons are primed for
future gang hits.
(gunshots)
MARIANA: In your guy's case, running a business.
(gunshots)
An illegal business in this case.
MARIANA: Getting caught isn't something these two worry about.
They already have buyers waiting for them in the city.
♪ Oh! ♪
♪ I got to make me a gun ♪
MARIANA: It's hard for me to imagine ghost guns aren't
having an impact in America's rising gun violence.
The industry is ripe for exploitation, but a true
black market isn't built on backyard operations.
You need to scale up.
♪ Hit me, not for fun, I got to make me a gun ♪
♪ Clearly not for fun, I got to make me a gun ♪
MARIANA: And I've heard rumors that something much bigger is
taking place right here, in the Rocky Mountains.
When I started looking into this story.
I didn't ever imagine that I would end up in Denver.
It's not a place that you think of when you think of
guns or gangs.
But it might be the center of an interstate pipeline that
proves ghosts guns are the future of American gun trafficking.
♪ ♪
MARIANA: So quite the setup you have here.
And who, these guys all work with you?
MARIANA: Denver isn't my usual beat, so I had some colleagues
connect me with this man.
By day, he's the owner of a retail store that sells toys,
T-shirts and custom sneakers,
but at night, he runs a black market business
out of the back office.
As for the other men in the room, I'm not so sure.
MARIANA: Uh-hmm.
MARIANA: A silencer kit?
MARIANA: Holy moly.
MARIANA: And this is completely illegal.
MARIANA: How did you come up with this idea?
MARIANA: That reason is guns.
Getting a ghost gun is easy,
but not as easy as I've been led to believe.
California has some of the country's most restrictive gun laws.
There's all kinds of hardware that ghost gun companies can't
ship into the States, but I saw those outlawed parts in action.
(gunshots)
Colorado's laws are looser, and I suspect criminals are
using Denver as a kind of way station or weapons depot,
the nexus of a larger pipeline.
And who's buying this, this from you?
Have you sold to criminals?
MARIANA: I love how you're going, you're going in circles
and not wanting to tell me about what the business is.
My contacts may be connected to the pipeline I'm searching for,
but with some black market operators,
if you push too far, they clam up.
MARIANA: My line of work takes trust, but here,
I'm a stranger in a strange town.
I reach back out to my colleagues for another way in.
Apparently, he's waiting for us on the side of the road
somewhere here.
Yeah, he says he's here already.
Do you guys see him?
I don't see anyone.
Oh, I think it's him right here.
Yeah.
I think this is him.
Hi.
ABEL: Hello. MARIANA: How are you?
ABEL: How are you?
MARIANA: So nice to finally meet you.
ABEL: Yeah. How you doing?
♪ ♪
MARIANA: Who are we meeting tonight?
ABEL: We're going to go meet a couple of my homies.
This is what they do.
He has customers that will blow your mind.
MARIANA: Really?
His name is Abel.
Back in Miami, he was a gang member who ran with a violent crew.
After spending several years in jail, Abel moved to Denver,
hoping to leave his criminal past behind,
but his connections to the black market remain strong.
And tonight, he's taking me to meet a gun trafficker.
ABEL: Him and his brother, they're Surenos.
MARIANA: Oh, he's a Sureno?
ABEL: Yeah.
MARIANA: So that's a Mexican cartel, basically?
ABEL: Yeah, yeah.
MARIANA: That operates. ABEL: Everywhere.
MARIANA: Heavily here in the U.S., as well.
ABEL: Yeah.
MARIANA: Though the Surenos have their strongest presence
in Southern California, the gang is believed to have some
30,000 members spread across 35 states.
Are the Surenos big in Denver right now?
ABEL: From what I see, yeah.
MARIANA: And why is it?
Why do you think there's such a demand for, for these guns?
ABEL: Because people do a lot of dumb (bleep).
And nobody wants to be held accountable for that.
MARIANA: Is that him?
ABEL: Yup. That's him.
MARIANA: Okay. That's our guy.
It's okay to get out?
ABEL: Yeah, yeah. Let's go.
MARIANA: Abel's contact asked me to call him "Johnny".
JOHNNY: Yo.
MARIANA: And confirms that he is, in fact, a Sureno.
MARIANA: Do you mind putting the gun down?
Only because we're, it's making me really nervous.
MARIANA: With the light and people passing but you're not.
JOHNNY: Yeah, you're good. MARIANA: You're okay here?
MARIANA: I don't know.
We're under an underpass with cars passing, and I'm getting super nervous.
JOHNNY: Yeah. For sure.
MARIANA: So this is all 3D.
JOHNNY: The plastic, yeah. Everything.
MARIANA: This is all plastic?
MARIANA: Oh, wow. Doesn't look plastic at all.
MARIANA: Can I hold it?
MARIANA: Wow. So this is an AR?
MARIANA: Really, the shotguns is what every.
MARIANA: Johnny and his brother print these shotguns
for 200 to 300 bucks, then they sell them for roughly a grand.
They use a 3D printer and order the other parts via
80% build kits, just like Dutch and his buddies.
And even though Johnny is an ex-con who isn't legally
permitted to own firearms,
the laws around ghost guns are so easy to outsmart,
that Johnny now prints three to four guns every couple days.
And where do you get, like, the, the, the drawings for
the, what to print?
Where do you think Johnny gets them from?
From Cody Wilson's company, Defense Distributed.
♪ ♪
MARIANA: Why do you think these guns are so popular?
MARIANA: Do you think that the guns you're selling are being used to kill?
JOHNNY: Yeah.
MARIANA: These guns aren't "ending up" in the wrong hands.
Those hands are reaching out to Johnny and he's eagerly supplying them.
MARIANA: You don't?
MARIANA: Why not?
MARIANA: Johnny isn't just a gun trafficker, he's a gangster.
He was born into the Surenos.
His family has been a part of the gang for generations.
But I'm surprised to discover Johnny actually grew up in LA,
mere miles from where I saw Flaco's operation.
So this is a weird question, but we actually, I know a group
that I was filming with last week in LA,
that coincidentally came to Denver to buy ghost guns.
This group, they're called the (bleep).
After talking to Johnny for a while, I had a hunch that
maybe he knew Tiny and Flaco.
And when I ask, he tells me not only does he know them,
he, in fact, does business with them.
So they buy guns from you guys?
MARIANA: Wow, that's crazy.
MARIANA: Yeah. It's a small world.
I can't believe that.
So I guess you guys are the people to buy guns from if you're coming to Denver?
MARIANA: I'm genuinely shocked by this trafficking pipeline,
one that connects the Rocky Mountains to Downtown Los Angeles,
arming gang members all along the way.
Johnny says his printing operation goes even further
than that, supplying ghost guns to the Midwest and
even to Mexico's cartels.
What about groups, scarier groups than gangs, even.
Like what about, have you?
MARIANA: Yeah, yeah.
Actually, I wasn't going to ask that, but have you?
MARIANA: Wow! JOHNNY: Yeah.
MARIANA: It's a frightening admission.
One that dovetails perfectly with something Cody Wilson said.
And who are your, who are your customers?
Who's buying this stuff?
CODY: It's always hard to characterize them, but they
skew older men, decent technical experience,
maybe there's some military experience, but in general,
that, that sweet spot of that January 6th rioter, probably.
You know, someone like that.
(shouting)
MARIANA: It's clear to me now that the entire ghost gun
industry is helping create a violent black market,
one that may be spreading beyond the streets.
(gunshots)
MARIANA: The number of attacks by anti-government groups are
at the highest they've been in decades.
DUNCAN: Go.
MARIANA: Today, there are some 500 of them in the United States.
With thousands of members.
DUNCAN: Set!
(gunshot)
MARIANA: The ones I've arranged to meet tonight
belong to the Boogaloo Bois.
And what is it about the government that you don't agree with?
MARIANA: The Boogaloo movement started online in 2010 as a
loose collection of extreme voices preparing for a second
civil war, what they nicknamed "The Boogaloo."
But by 2020, members took their outrage offline and
onto the streets, showing up armed and wearing bright
Hawaiian shirts at various protests across the country.
EXPERT (over computer): They bring guns, they don't like the police,
and they're attracted to chaos.
MARIANA: Violence wasn't far behind.
REPORTER (over TV): A self-avowed Boogaloo member.
REPORTER (over TV): Fired what's called a ghost gun.
REPORTER (over TV): Connected to the deaths of two officers.
MAN (over TV): They came to Oakland to kill cops.
REPORTER (over TV): A plan to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
MARIANA: Is there a point that you guys see that you'll need
to use your guns against the government and the police?
MARIANA: Are you serious?
MARIANA: So, as an American citizen myself, and being at
home that day, and watching the news, and seeing people
attacking our democracy, it was incredibly shocking and sad.
It was a really sad day for me.
PROTESTERS: Treason! Treason! Treason!
MARIANA: So to hear you say that you want this to happen
again with armed people next time is, is troubling to me.
MARIANA: And you would join the people that were taking it up a notch?
(police officer screaming).
MARIANA: All of this sounds like anarchy.
It sounds like America's criminals have discovered the
perfect weapon, one that they can use against rival gangs,
the government, and even the people closest to us.
♪ ♪
(gunshots)
KEN: You hear gunfire in a rural area,
it's nothing that's new.
It's, it's part of the environment.
But there was something about this one that made it different.
(gunshots)
MARIANA: It was the morning of November 14th, 2017.
What fourth grade teacher Ken Yuers didn't know was
that by the time he heard gunfire, the shooter had
already murdered his own wife and two neighbors.
OPERATOR (over phone): 911.
WOMAN (over phone): Someone's been shot.
MAN (over phone): He shot, he shot my uncle!
MAN (over phone): Initially we opened the door and he started shooting at us.
MAN (Nver phone): Oh, my God.
OPERATOR (over phone): Which way did he go?
MARIANA: And was heading towards the elementary school.
The gunman smashed through the school's gates and
opened fire with a semi-automatic assault rifle.
KEN: My senses were completely overwhelmed with what was going down.
This is an actual attack on our school, this guy has an AR-15.
I can't even explain it.
MAN (over phone): There's shooting at Rancho Tehama.
There's a white truck ramming the gate.
WOMAN (over phone): All kinds of gunfire.
KEN: And then I heard him just opening up on that quad area.
WOMAN (over phone): A bunch of gunshots are going off,
people are yelling "Help!"
KEN: You're going through a shooting, and seconds matter
and the police are minutes away, and not even minutes,
I mean 15-20 minutes, it was such a long time to be at the
mercy of a maniac.
MARIANA: Six-year-old Alejandro Hernandez was
huddled inside his kindergarten classroom
while the gunman was firing through the walls and windows.
REPORTER (over TV): Opening fir at seven different locations.
REPORTER (over TV): Semi-automatic rifle in hand.
REPORTER (over TV): Fired at least 30 rounds.
MARIANA: Once police began chasing the shooter,
Alejandro's mother received an urgent call from the school.
ANGELICA: First she told me, "Sit down."
And the moment when she told me to sit down, I, yeah,
I knew there was something, you know, happening.
ANGELICA: I got shocked, it was really hard.
MARIANA: I have a son as well, the same age, and it's,
I think, the biggest worry.
ANGELICA: Yeah.
MARIANA: The most scary thing for every mom's.
ANGELICA: Uh-hmm. MARIANA: And father's mind.
ANGELICA: You never know when it will happen.
MARIANA: Alejandro Hernandez took two direct hits.
Thankfully, he survived.
But I didn't come to Rancho Tehama to learn more about the murders.
I came here to prove a point about the murder weapon.
KEN: I do believe in the Second Amendment.
But I come to find out later he had been told back in
January of 2017, the judge told him,
"You need to turn in all your weapons."
MARIANA: He wasn't allowed to own a gun?
KEN: Correct! He was not allowed to own a gun.
MARIANA: Like the gangsters I met, the Rancho Tehama gunman
wasn't allowed to possess a firearm, but because gun parts
aren't regulated like guns, he was able to order a ghost gun online.
CODY: It's a game. MARIANA: Uh-hmm.
CODY: Why can't I play this game?
MARIANA: If this is in fact a game, then we're the ones being played.
DISPATCH: Shots fired, multiple calls coming in.
REPORTER (over TV): A shooting outside a Manhattan night club.
MAN: We opened the door and he started shooting at us.
MAN: Hey. We need an ambulance, immediately.
OPERATOR (over phone): How many shots did you hear?
WOMAN (over phone): Like, four or five.
MAN: No.
(crying)
CODY: What we accidentally did was create the Second Amendment,
if it didn't exist beforehand.
If there's a right to keep and bear arms, whatever that means,
then you've got it.
MARIANA: Sure, but so does everyone else, and that's not
what America's founding fathers intended.
There's a difference between a free marketplace
and a free-for-all.
MARIANA: Ironically, it was the gangsters I met who were
the most honest about the impact of the ghost gun industry.
Do you think the gun manufacturers feel threatened
at all by the fact that these are becoming so popular?
MARIANA: I couldn't agree more.
From what I've seen, ghost guns are like a black market
disguised as a legal one.
And that's not something to cheer.
Unless you think guns belong in the hands of gangsters,
underage kids,
or extremists trying to overthrow our government.
♪ ♪
Do you wish that there were clearer laws in place?
RYAN: Absolutely.
I, I think there's certain people that have lost their
privilege to possess a firearm.
POLICE OFFICER: Search warrant!
BIDEN: And today, the United States Department of Justice
is making it illegal.
To manufacture one of these kits without a serial number, illegal.
MARIANA: Though the Biden administration is attempting
to regulate the sale of at-home build kits,
experts fear this won't make much difference because the
parts themselves remain legal and available.
MARIANA: It's time for Americans to ask themselves.
♪ The son of a gun ♪
(gunshots)
REPORTER (over TV): A shooting outside a Manhattan night club.
WOMAN (over phone): How many shots did you hear?
MARIANA: Is this a price we're willing to pay?
Captioned by Cotter Media Group.