On Tuesday, the United States Supreme Court paused a lower court’s decision that invalidated the Biden administration’s restrictions on “ghost guns,” which are firearms that are privately assembled and untraceable.
According to CBS News, the Supreme Court will allow enforcement of the rules as legal proceedings continue. In the 5-4 order, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett reportedly joined the three liberal justices to freeze the lower court's ruling on “ghost guns.” Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh reportedly said they would deny the request from the Biden administration to revive the “ghost gun” rules.
"While this case is being litigated, the Supreme Court's action will keep in place important efforts to combat the surge of unserialized, privately-made 'ghost guns' which have proliferated in crime scenes across the country," Olivia Dalton, White House principal deputy press secretary, said in a statement after the order came out.
Biden’s policies surrounding restrictions on "ghost guns" were announced in April 2022 (via The White House):
Last year alone, there were approximately 20,000 suspected ghost guns reported to ATF as having been recovered by law enforcement in criminal investigations – a ten-fold increase from 2016. Because ghost guns lack the serial numbers marked on other firearms, law enforcement has an exceedingly difficult time tracing a ghost gun found at a crime scene back to an individual purchaser.
This final rule bans the business of manufacturing the most accessible ghost guns, such as unserialized “buy build shoot” kits that individuals can buy online or at a store without a background check and can readily assemble into a working firearm in as little as 30 minutes with equipment they have at home. This rule clarifies that these kits qualify as “firearms” under the Gun Control Act, and that commercial manufacturers of such kits must therefore become licensed and include serial numbers on the kits’ frame or receiver, and commercial sellers of these kits must become federally licensed and run background checks prior to a sale – just like they have to do with other commercially-made firearms.
The final rule will also help turn some ghost guns already in circulation into serialized firearms. Through this rule, the Justice Department is requiring federally licensed dealers and gunsmiths taking any unserialized firearm into inventory to serialize that weapon. For example, if an individual builds a firearm at home and then sells it to a pawn broker or another federally licensed dealer, that dealer must put a serial number on the weapon before selling it to a customer. This requirement will apply regardless of how the firearm was made, meaning it includes ghost guns made from individual parts, kits, or by 3D-printers.
In remarks from the White House last year, President Joe Biden said: “"If you commit a crime with a ghost gun, expect federal prosecution."
CBS noted that going forward, manufacturers and sellers of certain ghost gun kits are required to obtain licenses, mark their products with serial numbers, conduct background checks and maintain records to allow law enforcement to trace the firearms when used in crimes.
Reportedly, the plaintiffs challenging the Biden administration’s rule argued that redefining “firearm” under federal law oversteps the Gun Control Act.
"By seeking to bring within its purview items that facilitate the making of firearms by private citizens for their own use, ATF has sought to fundamentally alter the policy choices made by Congress in 1968," the plaintiffs reportedly said. "Those policy choices are for Congress, not ATF, to make."