After a number of gun control propositions supported by the Biden administration have been struck down or are still facing challenges in the judicial system, one such policy was recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
In a decision on Tuesday, the nation’s highest court implemented a stay on a lower court’s ruling about an effective ban on so-called “ghost guns.”
The Supreme Court allowed a set of ghost gun regulations created by the Biden Administration to take effect Tuesday—which updated the definition of a firearm to include gun kits that can be easily purchased online and assembled at home. pic.twitter.com/7SFmEJCpyI
— Forbes (@Forbes) August 8, 2023
Such firearms can be assembled from kits and do not bear the serial numbers that make other guns easier to track.
Siding with the liberal minority, Chief Justice John Roberts and conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett secured a 5-4 ruling that overturned U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor’s determination that regulating ghost guns exceeded the authority of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.
As a result of the Supreme Court decision, the regulation will remain active as the Biden administration pursues an ongoing appeal. It is worth noting that the court’s vote does not represent a final ruling on the matter and justices could still decide to hear the full case.
In any case, four of the court’s conservative justices sided with O’Connor — and gun-rights organizations including the Firearms Policy Coalition — in determining that ghost guns should not be subject to the increased scrutiny of federal regulators.
Cody J. Wisniewski, general counsel for the Firearms Policy Coalition, expressed frustration with the Supreme Court’s ruling while offering an optimistic view of the case going forward.
“We’re deeply disappointed that the Court pressed pause on our defeat of ATF’s rule effectively redefining ‘firearm’ and ‘frame or receiver’ under federal law,” he asserted. “Regardless of today’s decision, we’re still confident that we will yet again defeat ATF and its unlawful rule at the Fifth Circuit when that Court has the opportunity to review the full merits of our case.”
U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar presented the federal government’s case to the high court. In calling for the ban to be reimplemented, she argued that O’Connor’s decision had been “irreparably harming the public and the government by reopening the floodgates to the tide of untraceable ghost guns flowing into our Nation’s communities.”
