New Jersey Attorney General Jen Davenport sued a Pennsylvania resident Wednesday, accusing him of overseeing a yearslong effort to evade New Jersey law by selling kits to Garden State residents so they could make home-assembled, untraceable firearms, known as “ghost guns.”
Davenport alleges Jordan Vinroe made millions by controlling entities that sold build-your-own-firearm kits at gun shows in Pennsylvania without conducting background checks or otherwise making sure he wasn’t selling them to people disqualified from owning firearms. The six-count lawsuit was filed in state Superior Court in Mercer County.
When the Pennsylvania gun shows, run by Eagle Shows, restricted the sale of firearm kits in 2021, Vinroe responded by acquiring Eagle and “making its shows overtly pro-Ghost Gun,” the complaint says. When New Jersey sued two of Vinroe’s companies, including Eagle, in 2023, they filed for bankruptcy and Vinroe then started a new company, Eastern Gun Expo, to continue operating, the complaint says.
“We learned that Vinroe was continuing his businesses, just in a different form.” Davenport told reporters Wednesday. “Eagle Shows became Eastern Gun Expo with similar branding, the same phone number, and the same gun show dates as Eagle.”
Reached by phone, Vinroe denied that he is the proprietor of Eastern Gun Expo.
“I am not the owner, and that’s probably all I can say about that,” Vinroe said.
Eastern Gun Expo did not return a request for comment.
New Jersey in 2018 banned guns that are homemade, 3D printed, or otherwise undetectable by security scanners.
Davenport’s office on Wednesday said that between 2019 and 2022, ghost guns recovered at New Jersey crime scenes increased eightfold from 55 to 433. Since then, authorities have recovered an average of 251 ghost guns annually, her office said. Wednesday’s complaint pins the blame on Vinroe for much of the proliferation of untraceable firearms in the Garden State.
“Largely because of Vinroe, Ghost Guns became a readily available weapon of choice for New Jersey’s gun traffickers and individuals convicted of serious or dangerous crimes,” it says.
The complaint notes that on a 2020 podcast, Vinroe said his business relied on residents in places like New Jersey with tight laws on guns.
“What’s really good is when you get closer to places that are very restrictive, so a New Jersey, a New York, a California, Washington State. Anywhere where their gun laws are very strict, is where you see people wanting products the most,” he said.
