CNN
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THE Supreme Court Tuesday, I accepted freeze a lower court order which prohibits the government from regulating so-called ghost guns – untraceable homemade weapons – as firearms under federal law.
The brief order grants the Biden administration’s request to allow the regulations to remain in effect while legal challenges play out.
Ghost guns are kits that a user can purchase online to assemble a fully functional firearm. They have no serial number, do not require background checks, and provide no transfer records for easy traceability. Critics say they attract people who are prohibited by law from buying guns.
The vote was 5 to 4. Chief Justice John Roberts and fellow conservative Amy Coney Barrett joined the court’s three liberals in allowing the rule to take effect.
Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh would have rejected the request.
In 2022, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives updated its regulations to define the kits as firearms under the law so the government could track them more carefully.
The rule does not prohibit the sale or possession of a ghost gun kit, nor does it prevent an individual from purchasing such a kit. Instead, it requires compliance with federal laws that impose conditions on the commercial sale of firearms. These conditions include requirements that manufacturers and commercial sellers mark products with serial numbers and maintain records to allow law enforcement to trace firearms used in crimes.
In late June, Judge Reed O’Connor of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled that the agency had exceeded its authority in promulgating the rule and blocked it nationwide. A federal appeals court has refused to stay two key contested provisions of the regulation.
In the emergency brief filed with the Supreme Court, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar warned the justices that in recent years, “police departments across the country have faced an explosion of crimes involving weapons ghosts.”
“Congress recognized that limiting federal gun laws to functional firearms would incentivize evasion, and it therefore broadly defined “firearm” to include any weapon “that will or is designed to or can be easily converted to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive.” ,’” Prelogar wrote.
The challenge to the ATF regulations was launched by two Texas residents who possess components they intend to make into ghost guns for their personal use. The rule prevents them from purchasing additional coins directly. A handful of ghost gun kit retailers as well as a gun rights group have also challenged the rule.
The challengers’ attorneys said the lower court judge “correctly ruled” that the ATF overstepped its authority by agreeing to “expand the definitions” of firearms to include ghost gun components.
“The Gun Control Act of 1968 reflects a fundamental policy choice by Congress to regulate the commercial firearms market while leaving the law-abiding citizens of this country free to exercise their right to manufacture guns fire for their own use without imposing excessive federal regulation”, David. Thompson, their lawyer, argued in court documents.
O’Connor noted in his order that Congress’s definition of a firearm does not cover “parts or aggregates of parts of weapons,” whether or not the parts can be “readily assembled into something who can fire a projectile.
“While it is true that such an interpretation creates loopholes that, as a policy matter, should be avoided, it is not the role of the judiciary to correct them,” O’Connor wrote at the time.
This story has been updated with additional details.