The Biden administration will defend its regulation of so-called “ghost guns” before the Supreme Court during oral arguments Tuesday, months after the same conservative-controlled court threw out another federal gun control rule.
The case, Garland v. VanDerStok, is the first of several government attempts to use a decades-old law to curb gun violence nationwide, this time amid a tide of thousands of untraceable guns used in crimes.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives issued the rule in 2022 to target the sale of parts kits that can be quickly assembled into functioning firearms, some as quickly as 30 minutes. The rule clarified that those kits qualify as “firearms” that are required to be sold with serial numbers and background checks the same as commercially produced guns.
