The Supreme Court was considering a challenge to a 2022 regulation that sought to regulate ghost guns.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a Biden administration rule that regulates unserialized firearms called ghost guns, delivering a win for federal efforts to curb gun violence.
The high court ruled 7-2 in finding that the rule from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is not facially inconsistent with federal firearms law. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented. Justice Neil Gorsuch authored the opinion for the majority.
«The GCA embraces, and thus permits ATF to regulate, some weapon parts kits and unfinished frames or receivers, including those we have discussed», Gorsuch wrote, referencing the Gun Control Act of 1968.
The case before the Supreme Court did not involve the Second Amendment, but whether ATF went too far when it issued the rule subjecting ghost guns to the same requirements as commercial firearms.
It follows a decision from the high court last year that struck down a measure from the first Trump administration that outlawed bump stocks, which are devices that increase a firearm’s rate of fire. It’s unclear whether President Trump will keep the regulation in place or take steps to rescind it.
Gorsuch’s opinion included images of a «Buy Build Shoot» weapon parts kit from Polymer80, a seller of the kits, and a completed firearm constructed from the parts. He called the finished product «an instrument of combat.»
«No one would confuse the semiautomatic pistol pictured above with a tool or a toy», he wrote. «Of course, as sold, the kit requires some assembly. But a number of considerations persuade us that, even as sold, the ‘Buy Build Shoot’ kit qualifies as a ‘weapon.'»
Gorsuch acknowledged that while it may take roughly 30 minutes to construct a firearm out of the kit, it «comes with all necessary components, and its intended function as instrument of combat is obvious.
