WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court will face another battle Tuesday over restrictions on firearms, as the justices consider the Biden administration’s move to ban “ghost gun” kits that allow people to assemble deadly weapons at home while circumventing existing regulations.
The government wants the kits to be regulated the same as other firearms, meaning manufacturers and sellers would have to obtain licenses, mark the products with serial numbers, undergo background checks and keep records.
The case comes just months after the court, which regularly backs gun rights, ruled that a federal ban on bump stocks — a gun accessory used to make semiautomatic rifles fire rapidly — was unlawful. In another gun case that marked a victory for the Biden administration, the court in June upheld a federal law that bars people who are victims of domestic violence from owning firearms.
In the case now before the nine judges, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which imposed the ban in 2022, says ghost guns are regularly used by violent criminals precisely because they are difficult to trace.
In court filings, Attorney General Elizabeth Prelogar, representing the ATF, referred to an “urgent public safety and law enforcement crisis caused by the exponential rise of untraceable firearms.”
Hundreds of ghost guns and related parts have been seized in New York City alone, according to a letter from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
The ban is currently in effect, but the Supreme Court declined to block it last year while the lawsuits continued. That decision, which was 5-4, could provide an indication of how the justices will ultimately rule on the case.
Then Chief Justice John Roberts and fellow conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the three liberal justices in the majority.
The new regulation clarified that the parts used to make ghost guns fall within the definition of “firearm” under the federal Gun Control Act, meaning the government has the power to regulate them the same way it regulates firearms sold through the traditional process are made and sold.
The law states that the regulations apply to “any weapon … designed or capable of being converted to discharge a projectile by the action of an explosive.” It also covers the “frame or receiver of such weapon.” The frame or receiver is the part of a firearm that houses other components, including the firing mechanism.
The case reached the Supreme Court after Texas-based U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor ruled last year in favor of Jennifer VanDerStok and Michael Andren, who own components they plan to use to build weapons. Plaintiffs also include gun rights groups and the makers and sellers of ghost guns.
The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled largely in favor of the challengers.
The challengers focus on the text of the Gun Control Act, saying in their letter that the law simply does not apply to gun equipment. The ATF does not have unilateral authority to ban ghost guns, and Congress must act if it so chooses, they argue.
The ordinance significantly expands the law’s language by saying it includes items that can be easily converted for use as a frame or receiver, attorneys for the challengers wrote.
“That violates the plain text of the statute,” they said.
Those defending the availability of ghost gun kits say they are mainly used by hobbyists, rejecting the government’s argument that criminals prefer these kits.
Although it involves a gun case, the legal issue is not about the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment to the Constitution.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
