Mayor & City Council of Baltimore v. Polymer80, Inc. and Hanover Armory, LLC, C.A.
We’re suing the nation’s largest manufacturer of homemade ‘ghost guns,’ Polymer80, for fueling gun violence in Baltimore, MD.
Background
Represented by Brady Legal and Sanford Heisler Sharp, LLP, the City of Baltimore is suing Polymer80, Inc. — the largest “ghost gun” manufacturer in the U.S. — for fueling gun violence in Baltimore. Homemade ghost guns are typically assembled with parts and kits that can be purchased online. These kits often include unfinished receivers, or so-called "80% receivers," and all of the necessary components to turn the unfinished receiver into a fully functioning gun.
The danger posed by the proliferation of ghost guns throughout Baltimore City cannot be understated. Brady’s complaint cites that Polymer80 accounts for 91% of all ghost guns recovered by police in Baltimore from January 2020 to April 2022. Prior to 2018, the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) had never recovered a ghost gun. In 2021, the BPD recovered a total of 324 ghost guns, or 14% of all firearms recovered. As of May 2022, the BPD has recovered more than 187 ghost guns — nearly double the amount recovered in 2021 for the same time period.
Lawsuit
Brady joined Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott in announcing the lawsuit on June 1, 2022, which was the first day that Maryland’s law banning ghost guns went into effect. The lawsuit was filed in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City. It seeks to hold Polymer80 accountable for the harm it has caused in Baltimore. This suit seeks to stop the sale of ghost gun parts in Baltimore and provide compensatory damages for policing costs to the City of Baltimore and for the injuries and trauma inflicted on the city.
“This suit will hold Polymer80 accountable for the harm it has caused in Baltimore, sending a message to all others, not in our town, not in our city.”
— Mayor Scott and Brady President Kris Brown
In our lawsuit, we allege Polymer80 intentionally undermines federal and state firearms laws by designing, manufacturing, selling, and providing ghost gun kits and parts to buyers who do not undergo a background check. Polymer80’s primary markets consist of people who want to evade law enforcement or who cannot obtain a gun from a federal firearms licensee, including underage buyers, buyers with criminal convictions, and gun traffickers.
While the Maryland ban on the sale of ghost guns went into effect on June 1, 2022, our lawsuit alleges that Polymer80 intentionally undermined other laws, including the Gun Control Act, the Maryland Handgun Register law, and the Maryland Handgun Qualification License law for years prior to June 1, 2022. Directly or indirectly through its network of dealers, Polymer80 has flooded Baltimore with these untraceable, unserialized firearms.
Our lawsuit also includes Hanover Armory as a defendant. We allege that Hanover Armory regularly sells Polymer80 kits in Maryland without determining whether its customers are prohibited from owning a firearm. Our lawsuit also notes that Polymer80’s business model enables an active secondary criminal firearms market of sellers who re-purchase Polymer80 products. For example, in 2021, Baltimore police uncovered a facility in which four individuals – Latoyah McCoy, Norman Forrest, Jordan Jones, and Edward Miles – had the tools to assemble 40 Polymer80 pistols.
Baltimore City is represented by Sara Gross and Tom Webb with the Affirmative Litigation Division of the Baltimore City Department of Law, Jonathan Lowy and Philip Bangle with the Brady Campaign, and Steve Kelly, Johan Conrod, Albert Powell, and James Hannaway with Sanford Heisler Sharp LLP.