Second Amendment advocates are urging the Supreme Court to let stand a federal judge’s ruling blocking the Biden administration’s rule regulating so-called ghost guns.
“Ghost gun” is a pejorative term used by gun control advocates to describe a homemade firearm that lacks a serial number and therefore can’t be tracked by law enforcement. Gun control groups have been trying for years to ban or regulate homemade guns but have failed to convince Congress to act.
On July 28, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito administratively stayed a nationwide injunction blocking the rule that was issued on July 5 by U.S. Judge Reed O’Connor of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. The stay is due to expire at 5 p.m. on Aug. 4.
Judge O’Connor, who was appointed in 2007 by President George W. Bush, made his ruling after finding that the regulation violated existing law.
“This case presents the question of whether the federal government may lawfully regulate partially manufactured firearm components, related firearm products, and other tools and materials in keeping with the Gun Control Act of 1968,” the judge wrote.
“Because the Court concludes that the government cannot regulate those items without violating federal law, the Court holds” that the rule “is unlawful agency action taken in excess of the ATF’s statutory jurisdiction.”
The ATF is the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.
On July 24, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit denied the government’s request to stay the lower court’s order blocking the rule “because the ATF has not demonstrated a strong likelihood of success on the merits, nor irreparable harm in the absence of a stay.”
The case, Garland v. VanDerStok, court file 23A82, is still pending before the 5th Circuit.
Serial Numbers, Background Checks
President Joe Biden said in April 2022 that privately made guns, which are often made with gun kits, are the “weapons of choice for many criminals.”
That month, the DOJ issued a rule requiring individuals who assemble homemade firearms to add serial numbers to them. The rule also mandated background checks for consumers who purchase the kits from dealers.
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