Government can again regulate ghost guns as Supreme Court freezes lower court ruling

August 8, 2023

WASHINGTON – The US government can once again regulate so-called “ghost gun” kits after the Supreme Court froze a lower court’s ruling that found the feds could not define the kits as firearms for improved federal tracking.

The Court issued a stay on the June order by Judge Reed O’Connor of the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

The 5-4 decision came with conservative Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett siding with their three liberal colleagues.

The stay comes after the US challenged O’Conner’s decision in the federal Court of Appeals, which declined the initial motion to freeze the lower court’s decision.

The Justice Department then sent its emergency filing for the Supreme Court to intervene, leading to Tuesday’s decision.

The O’Conner ruling found that the Biden administration overreached with its 2022 update to a regulation from the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The update was meant to close loopholes that allowed the sale of ghost gun kits to go unregulated, unlike registered firearms.

The kits include packaged gun parts that can be assembled into a firearm once delivered to someone’s home.

The ATF update did not ban the sales of ghost guns but rather requires the imposition of the established firearm sales conditions on the kits.

Before the update, selling unassembled gun parts subverted certain federal laws that require manufacturers and sellers to mark their products with serial numbers and keep sales records so law enforcement can trace down guns used in crimes.

The kits were popular for their ease of purchase but became a criminal justice issue when people took advantage of the scheme to avoid registering their weapons purchases with the federal government.

U.S. Supreme Court — The 5-4 decision came with conservative Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett siding with their three liberal colleagues.

In her filing to the Court, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote that “police departments around the Nation have confronted an explosion of crimes involving ghost guns” thanks to the lack of regulation, adding that Congress itself has recognized that withholding the term “firearm” strictly for assemble guns creates risk.

“Congress recognized that limiting the federal firearms laws to functional firearms would invite evasion, and it thus broadly defined ‘firearm’ to include any weapon ‘that will or is designed to or may readily be converted to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive,’” Prelogar said in the filing.

The Supreme Court’s stay will remain in effect until the legal process in the appellate courts has concluded, according to the brief.

Should the appeals court rule against the US and the government asks to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court in a writ of certiorari, it would remain in place until the Court has a chance to review the case.