Washington – The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a federal ban on selling parts kits that allow unlicensed gun owners to make firearms at home without police being able to track them.
In the 7-2 decision, the Justice agreed to these homemade weapons, commonly known as “ghost guns,” which are eligible for guns under federal law.
“Now, thousands of law enforcement agencies across the country depend on [federal] The tracking system connects guns involving crimes to the owner.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito objected.
The decision adheres to a statute issued by the Biden administration in 2022 that has strong support from police and prosecutors.
The ruling overturned conservative judges in Texas, who said Congress did not provide federal regulators with powers that violated the “part kit” that could assemble them into weapons.
This is a rare victory for gun control advocates in the High Court.
“The Supreme Court ruling is good news for all, except criminals who have adopted an unstoppable ghost gun as their weapon of choice,” said John Feinblatt, president of EveryTown’s gun security. “The ghost guns look like regular guns, shoot like regular guns, kill like regular guns – so it’s logical that the Supreme Court just confirms that they can also be adjusted like regular guns.”
Last year, the court’s conservative majority blocked the Trump and Biden administration’s rules on sentencing “bulging stocks”, which allows semi-automatic weapons to be fired as quickly as machine guns. Passed 6-3 votes, The judge said the equipment was not suitable The definition of machine gun set by Congress.
But the court said Wednesday that gun control in 1968 broadly defined guns as “any weapon…will be designed or easily converted into projectiles through the action of explosives.”
Both cases directly involve the Second Amendment and its protection of gun rights.
The Los Angeles Police Department and other police agencies are increasingly threatening to easily assembled guns and can be purchased online.
Three years ago, LAPD said these “ghosts” Guns are epidemic Not only in Los Angeles, but nationwide. …Ghost guns are real, they work and then kill. ”
The Justice Department under Biden told the court that local law enforcement agencies occupied more than 19,000 ghost guns at crime scenes in 2021, an increase of more than tenfold in four years.
In urging the court to uphold the injunction, attorney Elizabeth Prelogar argued that mail-order gun kits could “effectively invalidate” the gun law, which dates back to 1968, allowing police to track weapons used in crimes.
Without alcohol, tobacco, guns and explosives or new regulations adopted by the ATF, “anyone can buy a kit online and assemble a fully functional gun in minutes – no background checks, records or serial numbers are required,” she said.
California has banned the sale of these parts kits, but Atty. General Rob Bonta said a federal ban was needed to enforce the ban on sending these kits by mail.
Although California has tried to curb untried guns since at least 2016, he said the weapons account for nearly 30% of all guns the ATF has recovered in the state.
Meanwhile, the number of locally-free guns recovered by California law enforcement agencies increased 77 times from 167 in 2016 to nearly 12,900 in 2022, Bonta said.
But the warning from the police department did not evade the conservative Fifth Circuit in New Orleans. It violated the ATF regulations and ruled that the “weapon parts kit” was not a firearm, even if it could be assembled into a firearm.
The Supreme Court ruled the Fifth Circuit last year and voted to pass the government in Bondy and Van der Stoke case.
