Federal authorities have charged a former Boston Red Sox minor league baseball player in connection with the alleged manufacturing and selling of untraceable “ghost guns” on Monday.
Christopher Machamer was arrested in North Canton, Ohio, on Thursday after federal agents alleged he made and sold dozens of untraceable short-barreled assault-style rifles, according to an affidavit obtained by HuffPost.
Machamer faces federal charges of possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number, possessing an unregistered gun and illegally manufacturing a gun.
According to a statement from an agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, a federal investigation began in September after retail records appeared to show Machamer had purchased several AR-15 gun parts from September to November.
Machamer had been issued a federal license to be a firearms dealer, according to ATF records, but had gone out of business in 2022 and surrendered his license.
On Thursday, federal agents who had been watching Machamer pulled him over in North Canton and found five untraceable short-barreled AR-15-style rifles inside his car. They found 11 more after searching his home that day, and found additional weapons in a safe in his parents’ home, according to the affidavit.
Federal agents also reported finding several untraceable AR-15-style lower and upper receivers inside Machamer’s home, along with two Ghost Gunner mills ― machines that cut metal into gun parts.
The FBI defines the lower receiver as “the actual firearm,” and it’s required to have a serial number. It attaches to the rifle’s upper receiver, which includes the barrel.
In his interview with law enforcement, Machamer said he used the Ghost Gunner to create the lower receivers and typically kept about 15 to 20 ready for sale, according to the ATF agent’s affidavit.
Machamer said he intended to sell the untraceable rifles that were in his car to someone named “Burt” for $500 each and Burt would resell them, the affidavit said, telling the agents that Burt was a regular customer who previously bought 10 to 12 “complete” untraceable short-barreled AR-15-style rifles from him.
Machamer allegedly told authorities that he also sold Burt the lower receivers he bought after intentionally drilling out the serial numbers, making them untraceable.
Burt returned the guns because nobody wanted to buy them due to the drilled-out serial number, Machamer told investigators, according to the affidavit.
Machamer, 26, appeared in U.S. District Court in Akron on Monday and was scheduled for a detention hearing on Tuesday, according to The Canton Repository, a news site in Ohio.
Machamer played for the Lowell Spinners and Greenville Drive, minor league teams affiliated with the Boston Red Sox. He was released in 2020.
A year later, Machamer began dealing firearms under the business name Tactical Distribution in 2021, according to federal agents.
The affidavit said the ATF had traced dozens of guns used in crimes back to Machamer’s business before he voluntarily closed it.
The nonprofit group Everytown for Gun Safety has described untraceable ghost guns as “the fastest growing gun safety problem in the US,” citing more than a hundred reports of shootings involving ghost guns since 2013.