Washington — Supreme Court on Tuesday convene to hear arguments The Biden administration on Tuesday weighed in on its efforts to regulate firearms without serial numbers, called ghost guns, after months of questioning whether the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Tobacco went too far when it took unilateral action to curb gun violence. I considered it a second time.
Challengers filed by gun owners, gun rights groups and manufacturer groups are trying to invalidate regulations that seek to subject ghost guns to the same requirements as commercial firearms.
But the Biden administration has warned that repealing the rule would allow criminals, minors and others who are not legally allowed to possess firearms to obtain kits that can be assembled into a functioning, untraceable firearm in less than 30 minutes.
Garland v. The issue in the case, known as VanDerStok, is not whether Second Amendment rights were violated but whether the ATF exceeded its authority when it issued the 2022 regulations. This rule clarified the definition of “firearm” in the firearms category. Includes a kit of weapon parts and an incomplete pistol frame and rifle receiver that can be assembled into an operational firearm under the Control Act of 1968.
The bill aims to address the surge in crimes committed using ghost guns, which can be made with 3D printers or with kits and parts available online. Because these guns have no serial numbers or prior records, they make it difficult for law enforcement to track down buyers, making them especially attractive to people who cannot legally purchase a firearm or do not plan to use it in a crime.
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But by clarifying the definition of “firearm” in gun control laws to include such kits, manufacturers and sellers of ghost guns must be licensed, display serial numbers on their products, run background checks on potential buyers, and require prior records. must be maintained. Commercial gun manufacturers must do so.
A group of 20 major cities submitted to the Supreme Court that the regulations appear to be effective in reducing the use of ghost guns in their municipalities and across the country. In New York, for example, ghost gun recovery rates fell last year for the first time in four years. In Baltimore, there was a decline in 2023 for the first time since 2019.
Gun owners, advocacy groups and kit manufacturers sued the Biden administration shortly after the rule went into effect, arguing that Congress did not give the ATF the authority to change the definition of a firearm to apply to kits when it wrote the 1968 law. A federal district court judge struck down that rule. A three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit also struck down the rule, ruling that only finished firearms or complete frames or receivers are subject to gun control laws.
The Biden administration has asked the Supreme Court to review that decision, arguing that the rule ensures ghost guns comply with the same “simple, low-cost administrative requirements” that apply to commercial gun sales.
“This decision ignores what Congress wrote and allows anyone to purchase a kit anonymously online and have a fully functional firearm in minutes with no background checks, records or verification,” said Elizabeth Prelogar, 5th Circuit Solicitor General. “By allowing the assembly of , it would effectively nullify the Act’s careful regulatory plan,” he wrote. Or I need a serial number.”
She also argued that lower court interpretations of the law frustrated the design of the law by transforming the definition of a firearm into an inducement to avoid the law’s requirements.
But the challengers said the ATF’s clarification cannot be reconciled with the plain text of gun control laws and “risks upsetting popular semi-automatic gun laws.”
They submitted to the high court that any changes in the regulatory approach to privately made firearms should come from Congress, not the ATF.
“The critical fact in this case is Congress’s decision to focus the GCA on the commercial firearms market rather than the civilian manufacture of personal firearms. Therefore, the GCA does not reach the items used in civilian firearm manufacture that the ATF is attempting to achieve in Texas. “To regulate,” said Gun Owners, led by Jennifer VanDerStok.
The Supreme Court has previously been asked to intervene in the legal dispute, but the litigation is in the early stages. Supreme Court in August 2023 agreed to allow The Biden administration plans to enforce the ghost gun rule until the end of June 2025, pending a decision on its legality.
The Supreme Court split 5-4 in striking down the district court order that invalidated the law, with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joining the three liberal justices in the majority.
Roberts and Barrett’s previous votes make them key justices to watch. But that doesn’t mean they will vote to support the bill now that the Supreme Court is considering the merits of the case.
The high court is expected to consider the ghost gun rule months after it was introduced. Separate action invalidated It banned bump stocks, firearm accessories that increase the rate of fire of semi-automatic rifles to hundreds of rounds per minute.
In striking down the rule, the Supreme Court’s six-member conservative majority ruled that the ATF exceeded its authority when it issued the ban in 2018 after the mass shooting at a Las Vegas music festival, the deadliest in U.S. history.
