(Bloomberg) -- It’s now in the hands of the US Supreme Court whether President Joe Biden’s administration can continue to regulate so-called ghost guns — firearms that can be built at home or with the use of a 3D printer. The administration argues that its 2022 restrictions are necessary to keep untraceable weapons from flooding the streets. The rules have been challenged on the grounds that the 1968 gun control law on which they are based doesn’t apply to kits.
What are ghost guns?
They’re unregistered guns typically assembled from a kit, or 3D-printed based on instructions purchased on the internet or at a gun show. They come unfinished and in pieces, but once they’re assembled — a process that can take as little as 20 minutes — ghost guns operate exactly like regular guns. Because they lack the serial numbers that must be stamped on weapons sold already assembled, it’s impossible to find out where they originated.
How big of a problem are ghost guns?
US law enforcement officials recovered more than 70,000 firearms that they suspect were privately made between 2016 and 2022, with the vast majority coming in 2021 and 2022, according to the Justice Department. An estimated 2,500 ghost guns were linked to criminal activity from 2010 to April 2020, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control advocacy organization. (The group, which advocates for universal background checks and gun-safety measures, is backed by Michael Bloomberg, founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent company Bloomberg LP.)
By all accounts, ghost guns represent only a fraction of the estimated 393 million guns owned in the US or of the 13.5 million guns that were manufactured legally in 2022. But gun-safety advocates say that stopping ghost gun sales is an issue of growing urgency. Of the online sellers of ghost guns operating in 2020, Everytown estimated that almost 70% emerged after 2014.
How are ghost guns regulated?
On April 11, 2022, President Joe Biden announced new federal rules that expanded the definition of a firearm to include the unfinished components of one, such as the frame of a handgun or the receiver of a long gun. That brought the purchasing process for kits in line with the regulations for purchasing traditional guns, meaning sellers must run background checks on buyers and include serial numbers on kits. The rules took effect in August 2022, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives issued guidance on enforcement in December of that year.
How have ghost gun regulations been challenged?
In June 2023, a federal judge in Texas, ruling in a case brought by a collection of manufacturers, dealers, individuals and gun-rights groups, struck down the regulation. A kit of weapon parts, he ruled, doesn’t constitute a firearm under the Gun Control Act of 1968. The Biden administration appealed that decision to the Supreme Court. The high court, in an emergency order in August 2023, said the federal government can continue enforcing the regulation for now. A hearing is scheduled for the case on Oct. 8.
--With assistance from Sarah Holder.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
