The Supreme Court is set to decide whether the Biden administration can impose “ghost-gun” regulations requiring manufacturers to conduct background checks and place serial numbers on mail-order firearm kits.
The nation’s highest court agreed on Monday to take up the Garland v. VanDerStok case following a lower court decision invalidating “ghost-gun” regulations instituted in 2022 by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. Last summer, the Supreme Court sided with the Biden administration and permitted the rule to stay on the books as legal challenges took place.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in November the regulatory crackdown is unlawful, siding with a group of gun owners, manufacturers, and advocacy organizations to mostly uphold a lower court decision.
“Only Congress may make the deliberate and reasoned decision to enact new or modified legislation regarding firearms based on the important policy concerns put forth by ATF and the various amici here,” Judge Kurt Engelhardt concluded.
Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar responded to the ruling by warning about a “flood” of unregulated guns potentially making it even harder for law enforcement to mitigate violent crime.
“The result would be a flood of untraceable ghost guns into our Nation’s communities, endangering the public and thwarting law-enforcement efforts to solve violent crimes,”Prelogar argued.
The case is focused on whether the Gun Control Act of 1968 gives the ATF the authority to regulate “ghost guns,” and does not directly implicate the Second Amendment. Both sides asked the Supreme Court to take up the case.
When the regulations were first enacted, the Biden administration touted its crackdown on the mail-order kits by expanding the definition of a firearm to place mail order gun kits under the same regulations as traditional firearms.
“Today, my Administration is taking action to make sure fewer guns are sold without background checks. This is going to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers and felons. And my Administration is going to continue to do everything we possibly can to save lives,” Biden said. The president has made regulating firearms a major focus of his term as his son Hunter faces three federal gun charges.
The Justice Department said upon announcing the mail-order gun regulations that law enforcement had seen a surge of suspected “ghost guns” over the past five years. In 2016, law enforcement recovered an estimated 1,758 total privately made firearms compared to 19,344 in 2021, according to the ATF.
The Supreme Court will decide later this year on whether domestic abusers can own firearms and the legality of bump stocks.