WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in favor of federal regulations on self-assemble firearm kits, known as “ghost guns,” in a 7-2 decision authored by Justice Neil Gorsuch. The ruling affirms the authority of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to regulate kits that can be easily assembled into untraceable firearms.
Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented.
“The Gun Control Act embraces, and thus permits ATF to regulate, some weapon parts kits and unfinished frames or receivers,” Gorsuch wrote in the majority opinion.
In 2022, the Biden administration implemented a rule requiring ghost gun kits to undergo the same regulatory checks as traditional firearms. This included background checks, age verification, and serialization requirements.
Gun manufacturers and individual firearm owners challenged the rule, arguing that the 1968 Gun Control Act did not apply to weapon parts kits and that the new regulations constituted government overreach.
However, Gorsuch defended the regulation by pointing to the text of the law.
“The [Gun Control Act] authorizes ATF to regulate ‘any weapon (including a starter gun) which will or is designed to or may readily be converted to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive,'” Gorsuch wrote.
Comparing self-assembly gun kits to starter guns, he added, “A person without any specialized knowledge can convert a starter gun into a working firearm using everyday tools in less than an hour. And measured against that yardstick, the ‘Buy Build Shoot’ kit can be ‘readily converted’ into a firearm too.”
Justice Thomas, in his dissenting opinion, argued that the ruling misinterprets the law.
“The statutory terms ‘frame’ and ‘receiver’ do not cover the unfinished frames and receivers contained in weapon-parts kits, and weapon-parts kits themselves do not meet the statutory definition of ‘firearm,'” Thomas wrote. “That should end the case. The majority instead blesses the Government’s overreach.”
The ruling marks a victory for gun control advocates as ghost gun recoveries at crime scenes have surged. According to the Justice Department, nearly 19,000 untraceable firearms were recovered in 2021 alone, reflecting a sharp increase in their use.
John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, praised the decision.
“This Supreme Court decision is great news for everyone but the criminals who have adopted untraceable ghost guns as their weapons of choice,” Feinblatt said. “Ghost guns look like regular guns, shoot like regular guns, and kill like regular guns—so it’s only logical that the Supreme Court just affirmed they can also be regulated like regular guns.”
The court’s opinion acknowledges the challenges ghost guns pose for law enforcement.
“Efforts to trace the ownership of these weapons, the government represents, have proven almost entirely futile,” Gorsuch wrote.
