Supreme Court upholds Biden-era requirements on ghost guns

The Supreme Court on Wednesday gave the federal government the green light to regulate firearms kits — also known as ghost guns — as weapons, meaning they must have serial numbers and buyers must undergo background checks.

The 7-2 ruling turned not on large constitutional issues but the wording of the law and whether the Gun Control Act’s rules for weapons apply not just to actual guns but to kits.

Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, writing the key opinion, said at least some of the kits in question are so easy to complete, with little skill, using common tools and taking just a few minutes’ time, that they are equivalent to finished firearms for the purposes of the law.

He pointed to the “Buy Build Shoot,” a kit that has all the parts to produce a Glock-style semiautomatic pistol. It can be completed in about 20 minutes using common tools.

“Yes, perhaps a half hour of work is required before anyone can fire a shot. But even as sold, the kit comes with all necessary components, and its intended function as instrument of combat is obvious,” he wrote. “Really, the kit’s name says it all: ‘Buy Build Shoot.’”

He said not all kits are so easy, and it will be up to the government and the courts to sort out which ones cross the line.

The decision is a significant victory for gun control advocates and for former President Joseph R. Biden, whose administration issued the new rules in 2022 to declare kit guns subject to the Gun Control Act.

Mr. Biden acted amid a surge in ghost guns. The Justice Department said police recovered more than 2,300 a month in 2023, up from about 1,600 in 2021 and about 160 a month in 2017.

Kits — and 3D printing plans to manufacture parts — have made it easy to construct a gun privately.

Second Amendment advocates say Americans have been making homemade guns since before the country’s founding, and kit guns are expanding that to new audiences.

Gun control activists counter that the main reason to pursue a ghost gun is to avoid the scrutiny of a background check and traceability that comes with a serial number.

“Ghost guns have been a terror on our streets, haunting our communities, and taking lives,” said Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat. “Today — seven members of the Supreme Court followed the law and did not capitulate to special interests like the [National Rifle Association]. And our streets will be safer for it.”

During oral arguments last year, the justices focused heavily on the ease of creating a gun. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said that belied the suggestion that the kits were meant for hobbyists who wanted the satisfaction of completing a gun on their own.

The justices also sought the right analogy for when parts become a gun.

Justice Gorsuch on Wednesday compared kits to rifles disassembled for cleaning or transport. It may take time to put it back into working order, but nobody would argue it wasn’t a gun, he said.

He peppered his ruling with pictures of the “Buy Build Shoot” kit and the fully assembled gun.

“Plainly, the finished ’Buy Build Shoot’ kit is an instrument of combat,” he said,

During oral argument last year Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. countered with the example of a recipe. He said buying eggs, ham, onions and peppers doesn’t automatically make an omelet.

He dissented from Wednesday’s ruling on fairly technical grounds, saying his colleagues had prematurely applied the wrong legal test. He said he would have sent the case back to lower courts for more argument.

Justice Clarence Thomas was more direct in his dissent, saying his colleagues were playing word games to “rewrite” the law to cover gun kits.

“Congress could have authorized ATF to regulate any part of a firearm or any object readily convertible into one. But, it did not,” he said.

He said the ruling could threaten the AR-15, deemed America’s most popular rifle. Justice Thomas said a semiautomatic AR-15 could be converted into a fully automatic rifle “with relative ease,” which under the high court’s ruling this week could allow the ATF to regulate it like a machine gun.

Justice Gorsuch called that fear “misplaced.”

He said government lawyers have stated that they don’t believe AR-15 receivers would qualify as machine guns, and the court’s ruling shouldn’t be seen to justify that.

Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, who sided with Justice Gorsuch, wrote a separate opinion cautioning the government not to be too aggressive in prosecutions.

He said there is a danger of people not knowing they are violating the law.

The case is Bondi v. VanDerStok. Pam Bondi is the current attorney general, though it was former Attorney General Merrick Garland who issued the rules. Jennifer VanDerStok is a former police officer who wanted to manufacture a gun and said she feared running afoul of the Biden rules.

The Supreme Court had allowed Mr. Garland’s rule to remain in place while the case was being argued.