Polymer80 Ghost Guns Seized, This Time In Banning

BANNING, CA — An Banning arrestee who police said hit a parked car, fled the scene, and was later found with Polymer80 ghost guns, has been released on bail.

Riley Rhodes, 20, of Banning was arrested by Banning police just before 11:30 p.m. April 9 at W. Gilman Street and Linda Vista Drive, according to jail records. He was booked on suspicion of two counts of carrying an unregistered concealed firearm and possessing a large-capacity magazine.

Rhodes was released on $10,000 bail the day after his arrest, jail records show.

According to Banning police, officers were dispatched just after 10 p.m. April 9 to a report of a hit-and-run crash in the 500 block of N. Hargrave Street.

The driver, later identified as Rhodes, hit a parked car then fled the scene on foot, Banning police said.

Officers watched as "a suspicious vehicle" cruised several times by the crash investigation, so they pulled the driver over.

Rhodes was a passenger in the vehicle and police determined he was the hit-and-run driver they were looking for. Police said Rhodes was found with two loaded 9mm semi-automatic Polymer80 handguns that Banning PD called "ghost guns.”

Ghost guns are unserialized and untraceable firearms that can be bought online and assembled at home. Ghost guns are illegal in California.

Nevada-based Polymer80 is one of the largest manufacturers of do-it-yourself ghost gun kits in the country. The company has been at the center of several civil lawsuits, including pending cases brought by the cities of Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., which accuse the company of disregarding state and federal gun laws.

Last year, the Los Angeles Police Department reported it had recovered 8,661 firearms and more than 22 percent were ghost guns. According to the LAPD data included in a recent court filing, 1,722 of those ghost guns — almost 90 percent — were made from kits produced by Polymer80.

Like all companies that sell ghost gun kits, Polymer80 is operating in a gray zone. California law states that the term “firearm” applies to the “unfinished frame or receiver of a weapon that can be readily converted to the functional condition of a finished frame or receiver.”

In 2019, the California Legislature acted to address the growing concern of ghost guns, as well as ghost gun kits like those offered by Polymer80, with passage of AB 879. Once the law takes effect, it will require, among other things, that sellers of firearm precursor parts obtain a state license; only sell in-person and conduct background checks; and sell only to people 21 and older who have passed background checks.

The legislation was originally set to go into full effect in July 2025, but in 2020 the California Legislature passed SB 118 to expedite implementation of most of the new requirements to July 1, 2022.

Editor's note: Court records for Rhodes were unavailable.

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