The Supreme Court announced Monday, April 22, it will take up the issue of ghost guns, which are firearms without serial numbers. The untraceable gun kits can be purchased online and used to assemble fully functioning firearms at home – without a background check.
In 2022, the Biden administration imposed regulations on ghost gun manufacturers through the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), requiring makers to put serial numbers on ghost gun kits, and keep track of who purchased them.
The new rule does not prohibit a person from buying a ghost gun kit. Rather, the regulations force ghost gun-makers to adhere to the rules under the Gun Control Act of 1968.
Guns rights advocates and ghost gun manufacturers sued, arguing the Biden administration’s regulations were not allowed under the law.
In November 2022, a three-judge panel for the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the ghost gun-makers and called Biden’s ghost gun limits “unlawful,” stating the administration lacked authority to adopt the regulation through the ATF.
“Only Congress may make the deliberate and reasoned decision to enact new or modified legislation regarding firearms,” Judge Kurt Engelhardt.
The Biden administration appealed, saying police departments are dealing with an “explosion of crimes involving ghost guns.”
In 2017, police officers seized about 1,600 ghost guns and submitted them for tracing. By 2021, that number increased to 19,000 ghost guns.
Manufacturers claim the Biden administration wants to destroy their business.
The Supreme Court won’t hear arguments before the fall session.
