t was a big victory for President Joe Biden and supporters of gun safety rules, but it was also a kind of defeat: Americans can no longer legally buy or sell "ghost guns," firearms that have no serial numbers and can be acquired without a background check.

But Biden did it the new-fashioned way: by executive action that didn't require passage from an uncooperative Congress.

"If you commit a crime with a ghost gun, expect federal prosecution," Biden said in a White House Rose Garden event attended by members of Congress and gun control advocates. Unusually for a Democratic president, Biden briefly held a gun in his hand, showing how easy it was to buy the parts and assemble such a gun that cannot be traced by authorities if it is recovered at a crime scene.

"This is the gun," he said. "It's not hard to put together. Anyone can order it in the mail. Anyone … a felon, a terrorist, [a] domestic abuser [can] go from a gun kit to a gun in as little as 30 minutes.”

Police say they are finding such guns in droves at crime scenes. Some 20,000 "ghost guns" were reported to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives last year, Biden said, a tenfold increase from 2016.

The rule – proposed months ago and made final after a public comment period – bans the manufacture of what the Justice Department calls the most "accessible ghost guns," the "buy, build, shoot" kits people can purchase online or at a store without a background check and assemble easily at home.

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