The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a Biden administration regulation on ‘ghost guns,’ permitting background checks and other requirements to purchase the online kits.

According to USA TODAY, the Supreme Court’s 7-2 ruling overturned an appeals court decision.

Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented.

From SCOTUSblog:

By a vote of 7-2, the justices held that the Gun Control Act of 1968 allows the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to regulate at least some ghost guns, although they left open the possibility that the rule might not apply in individual challenges to particular ghost guns.

Justice Clarence Thomas dissented from the court’s decision, complaining that it had agreed to “rewrite statutory text.” Justice Samuel Alito wrote his own dissent in which he contended that his colleagues had applied the wrong test to determine whether the ATF rule was valid.

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The ATF adopted the rule in 2022 to address what it characterizes as an “exponential” increase in ghost guns. The Gun Control Act defines a “firearm” as “any weapon … which will or is designed to or may readily be converted to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive,” including “the frame or receiver of any such weapon.”

The ATF contended that the 2022 rule was consistent with the language of the law because it defines “firearm” to include products, such as gun kits, that can be converted into an operational gun or a functional frame (the basic structure of the gun) or receiver (the part of the gun that houses the firing mechanism). The rule also clarified that the terms “frame” and “receiver” include partially complete or disassembled frames or receivers that can be “readily” completed or converted to work as a frame or receiver.

Per USA TODAY:

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.”

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.

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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.”

 

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