Legal Battle Over Ghost Guns Heads to Supreme Court. Credit | REUTERS
United States – The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Tuesday the Biden administration’s regulation on “ghost guns” –home-made firearms that permeated several crimes across the country.
Appeal Against Lower Court Ruling
The administration is appealing a lower court’s ruling stating that the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives overstepped its authority in putting out the 2022 rule targeting parts and kits for ghost guns, which are legally constructed gun frames and can be bought online and assembled swiftly at home.
Other plaintiffs include manufacturers of firearms parts, different gun owners, and two gun rights organizations, the Firearms Policy Coalition and Second Amendment Foundation, who amended the complaint to seek a temporary restraining order that prevents the implementation of the ATF rule in the United States, as reported by Reuters.
New Requirements
Firearms kits and parts, including frames or receivers that are incomplete but could become functional firearms, must also bear serial numbers, licenses, and background checks of the buyer, similar to other fully made commercially available firearms.
The rule explaining that these kits and components are considered “firearms” under a federal law enacted in 1968 known as the Gun Control Act, and as a result, those who are engaged in the commercial manufacture of such kits will have to obtain a license.
Challenges
Ghost guns are especially appealing to people who cannot legally purchase firearms; this includes kids and violent offenders, and court and police claims. The authorities have lots of difficulties identifying these weapons when they are found at the scene of a crime and returned to a particular purchaser because ghost guns do not bear the serial numbers found in other firearms, as reported by Reuters.
The administration has described the rule as essential to address a surge of “ghost gun crime” in the United States.
The Texas-based federal judge Reed O’Connor struck down the rule in 2023, arguing that the ATF had violated the law by ‘re-writing’ the law without consulting the Congress.
