The Biden administration urged the Supreme Court late on July 27 to suspend a Department of Justice rule regulating so-called ghost guns that a federal judge in Texas struck down earlier this month.
“Ghost gun” is a pejorative term used by gun control advocates to describe a homemade firearm that lacks a serial number and therefore cannot be tracked by law enforcement.
Gun control groups have been trying to ban or regulate homemade guns for years but have failed to convince Congress to act.
But in mid-2022 Congress approved a gun control measure for the first time in years when it passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act after a series of high-profile mass shootings. Although the legislation does not deal with homemade firearms, it promotes so-called red flag laws that encourage people to report gun owners if they believe they may pose a danger to themselves or others.
Around the same time, the Supreme Court voted 6–3 to strike down New York state’s tough concealed carry gun permitting system on constitutional grounds, recognizing for the first time a constitutional right to carry firearms in public for self-defense. The court also found that gun restrictions must be deeply rooted in American history if they are to survive constitutional scrutiny.
The emergency application (pdf) was filed in the case known as Garland v. VanDerStok, court file 23A82.
President Joe Biden said in April 2022 that privately made guns, which are often made with gun kits, are the “weapons of choice for many criminals.”
That month the DOJ issued a rule requiring individuals who assemble homemade firearms to add serial numbers to them. The rule also mandated background checks for consumers who purchase the kits from dealers.
“This rule will make it harder for criminals and other prohibited persons to obtain untraceable guns,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said at the time.
“It will help to ensure that law enforcement officers can retrieve the information they need to solve crimes. And it will help reduce the number of untraceable firearms flooding our communities.”
The DOJ “will continue to do everything within its power to protect our communities from violent crime and put an end to the plague of gun violence,” Mr. Garland added.
