DAYTONA BEACH — Companies that make kits which allow buyers to assemble military-style, semi-automatic rifles at home have sprung up in recent years in at least one Central Florida county, alarming some in law enforcement.



These so-called "ghost gun" kits have become popular with firearms rights activists because the parts have no serial number or other markings, making them untraceable.



Ghost guns can be purchased online from thousands of different websites without a background check.



It's legal because of the way the federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives defines a firearm. Under the law, no manufacturer-stamped serial number is needed if you make a gun for personal use.



At least six of these gun-kit makers are operating in Volusia County, which has worried law enforcement, who say the unregistered guns can make it easy for criminals to arm themselves with untraceable weapons.



"It's legal, but it's almost like a loophole in the law," Port Orange Police Chief Thomas Grimaldi told the Daytona Beach News-Journal (http://bit.ly/2eQaKMP ). "We're making it easy for the criminals. I have a concern — a huge concern over that."



One company that makes the parts for a do-it-yourself AR-15, a military-style assault rife that has been used in many mass shootings, is Elite Custom Railing in Holly Hill, Florida. The company specializes in making unfinished lower receivers -- the part of the gun that houses the trigger mechanism.



By leaving it unfinished -- meaning only partially drilled -- it fails to meet the ATF's requirement of being more than 80 percent complete. Buyers can finish the receivers at home by finishing the drilling.



Amanda Black, the company's manager, said they used to make aluminum railings, but found that making the untraceable gun parts was a booming business. Black said they sell between 100 and 150 lower receivers each day.



Still, building the guns is not easy and takes a lot of time, machinery and skills, said Jim Jusick, who co-owns Tactical Machining in DeLand.



Jusick said the difficulty of building the gun keeps them in the hands of experienced firearms owners, not criminals. He said it takes a high level of skill to know how to machine the parts correctly and put a properly operating gun together.



"Put it like this," he told the paper. "There is a possibility. But Joe Terrorist, he's not a builder."



But some law enforcement agencies say more homemade guns being found at crime scenes, especially in California. In Florida, it is hard to know the total because there is not a uniform method of tracking them.



"When we look at the sales that have been going on —they're selling on the Internet to people all over the country," said Special Agent Graham Barlowe of the ATF's field office in Sacramento. "And I just can't imagine that there would be an exception in Florida."





