Biden-era ‘ghost gun’ restrictions ruled unconstitutional
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A federal judge in Texas ruled Monday that a Biden administration-era rule regulating untraceable “ghost guns” is unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor held that the 2022 measure, which required that self-assembled guns be treated like any other firearm, conflicts with the nation’s “historical tradition” of personal gunsmithing and self-manufacture of firearms.
“The Court cannot conclude that the Final Rule’s imposition of ambiguous and far-reaching regulations, which would restrict access to component parts thereby inhibiting home gunsmithing, comports with the Second Amendment,” O’Connor, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, wrote.
He also determined the rule was unconstitutionally vague in violation of the Due Process Clause.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) adopted the rule to clarify the definition of “frame or receiver” in the Gun Control Act of 1968. It also required that commercial parts kits, which can be used to self-assemble a firearm, have serial numbers and mandated background checks for buyers.
The rule was intended to close a regulatory loophole that critics say has allowed largely untraceable weapons to become more prolific.
A Justice Department spokesperson said on Wednesday that the department is “evaluating the impact of the court’s ruling.”
Last March, the Supreme Court upheld the regulation in a 7-2 ruling that sidestepped the constitutional question and focused solely on the ATF’s authority under federal firearms law.
“Future cases may present other and more difficult questions about ATF’s regulations. But we take cases as they come and today resolve only the question posed to us,” Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the majority.
O’Connor’s ruling takes a step further, siding with a long-running challenge brought by two gun rights groups that sought further intervention after the Supreme Court’s decision.
“The Court rightly held that the Biden ATF’s rule not only sought to outright prohibit Second Amendment protected conduct but was written in such a vague and vaporous manner as to chill that protected conduct by making it impossible to even know what was legal and what wasn’t,” Adam Kraut, executive director of the Second Amendment Foundation, said in a statement after the ruling.
Meanwhile, gun violence prevention advocates argue that O’Connor’s ruling creates a “nightmare” scenario in which people who are banned from owning guns can easily obtain one with little oversight.
“Under the logic of this injunction, people ineligible to possess guns could get an untraceable ghost gun without any background checks or training,” said Emma Brown, the executive director for Giffords. “No one wants to live in a country where gun violence is easy to commit and almost impossible for police to solve.”
Updated at 10:34 a.m. EDT
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