Supreme Court sides with Biden and upholds regulations of ghost guns to make them traceable
Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas were the two dissenters in the case. Gun rights advocates expect President Trump to overturn the regulations.
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the Biden administration’s regulation of untraceable “ghost guns,” ruling that the weapons can be subject to background checks and other requirements.
The 7-2 decision, which overturned an opinion by a conservative appeals court, was a victory for former President Joe Biden. But President Donald Trump could repeal the regulation, something gun rights advocates are counting on.
Writing for the majority, Justice Neil Gorsuch said the Gun Control Act allows the government to regulate some weapon parts kits and unfinished frames or receivers.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented.
Thomas said the majority’s misinterpretation of the act “blesses the Government’s overreach.”
The gun owners and manufacturers who challenged the rule said it has primarily harmed hobbyists, contending the weapons are too unreliable for criminals, who prefer fully manufactured guns.
Biden, in 2022, moved to regulate the easy-to-assemble gun kits in response to what the federal government called an explosion in the use of these types of weapons during crimes.
Widely available online, the kits are popular not only with gun hobbyists but also with minors and criminals unable to buy a regulated firearm that has a serial number and transfer records so it can be traced.
Ghost guns recovered by police rose dramatically before new rules
The number of ghost guns recovered by police and reported to the government rose from 1,600 in 2017 to more than 19,000 in 2021.
The case turned not on the 2nd Amendment, but on whether guns made from the kits could be subject to the same restrictions as a fully manufactured weapon under the Gun Control Act of 1968.
That law’s definition of “firearm” includes “any weapon (including a starter gun) which will or is designed to or may readily be converted to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive,” as well as “the frame or receiver of any such weapon.”
The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the Biden administration, saying it was trying to rewrite the law, which only Congress can do. The appeals court in recent years has been seen as testing the boundaries of the conservative legal movement.
During October’s oral arguments, Chief Justice John Roberts took aim at the idea that the kits primarily appeal to gun crafters, questioning whether a person who drills one or two holes and takes plastic parts out to build a gun at home would feel a sense of accomplishment.
“He really wouldn't think that he’s built that gun, would he?” Roberts asked.
Biden's solicitor general, Elizabeth Prelogar, argued that if gun makers can circumvent regulation by leaving just one hole undrilled in a weapon, then “all guns could become ghost guns.”
Gun kits that require special tools
In his opinion, Gorsuch pointed to a weapons kit from Polymer80 for a Glock-variant semiautomatic pistol that can be assembled in 21 minutes using "common" tools and following instructions from a YouTube video.
"Really, the kit's name says it all: `Buy, Build Shoot,'" Gorsuch wrote.
Gorsuch said some kits may require enough time, expertise, or specialized tools to finish that they would no longer be covered by the regulation. But this case, he said, didn't require the court to "untangle exactly how far" the regulations extend.
Both the challengers and the appeals court argued that the kits can never be regulated.
"To resolve this case," Gorsuch wrote, "it is enough to say those assessments are mistaken."
Last year, by contrast, the high court ruled that the Trump administration went too far when it said a bump stock converts a semi-automatic rifle into a machinegun so can be banned.
Kris Brown, president of the gun violence prevent group Brady, called the ghost gun decision a “massive win in the fight for public safety and common sense.”
"Ghost guns are as easy to assemble as a piece of Ikea furniture and, before Biden’s rule, could be accessed with fewer regulations than it takes to rent a car or book a flight," Brown said in a statement.
The case is Garland v. VanDerStok.