Supreme Court upholds critical ghost gun rule

WASHINGTON — Today, GIFFORDS Law Center applauded the United States Supreme Court ruling 7-2 in Bondi v. VanDerStok  to uphold the federal rule addressing the rising problem of ghost guns. GIFFORDS Gun Owners for Safety filed an amicus brief in Bondi v. VanDerStok. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) rule clarified that the parts used to make ghost guns are legally firearms, which means that they must have serial numbers and can only be sold by licensed sellers after a background check.

“Ghost guns are the gun industry’s way of skirting commonsense gun laws and arming dangerous people without background checks. We are thrilled that the Supreme Court has upheld the ATF rule that treats ghost guns as what they are: guns. We’ve seen how the rise in ghost guns has contributed to increases in crime and gun deaths in communities across the United States. The Supreme Court’s ruling is a huge win for public safety,” said David Pucino, Legal Director and Deputy Chief Counsel, GIFFORDS Law Center. 

What Are Ghost Guns?

Ghost guns are firearms that do not have serial numbers because they are made by private individuals rather than licensed manufacturers. Because they do not have serial numbers, these guns cannot be traced by law enforcement, which makes it harder to solve crimes and investigate trafficking patterns. 

Ghost guns are primarily made using partially complete parts. By leaving intentionally unfinished the key part of the firearm—generally called the “frame” for handguns and the “receiver” for long guns—gun companies have been able to sell the parts needed to make a ghost gun while claiming they weren’t selling a gun at all. 

As a result, these companies have not conducted background checks and have readily sold ghost gun parts to anyone with the money to buy them, including documented sales to children and people prohibited because of their criminal record. Many of the companies do not even have a license to sell guns.

In recent years, gun traffickers have become major customers of ghost gun companies. Ghost guns are highly attractive to firearm traffickers precisely because there are no background checks or sale records and the guns themselves are untraceable. Sourcing guns for illegal resale is easier, and the subsequent black market sales are harder to track.

The result has been a surge of ghost guns onto our streets. Police departments across the country have reported explosive increases in the number of ghost guns connected with crimes, with ghost guns constituting up to 41% of guns used in crime, alongside an alarming rise in gun violence.

Faced with this rapidly expanding threat to gun safety, GIFFORDS has led the fight against ghost guns. When the threat was still first emerging, GIFFORDS Law Center partnered with pro bono counsel Arnold & Porter to call on the Internet Service Providers that hosted the websites selling these guns to take them down. While some internet companies have made it clear that the sale of gun parts is prohibited under their terms of service, others have continued to host these companies, and in-person ghost guns sales have continued at gun shows.

GIFFORDS has advocated for ghost gun laws at the state level and helped to pass ghost gun laws across the country.

GIFFORDS has also litigated the issue. Alongside Attorney General Xavier Becerra of California, GIFFORDS Law Center won an important victory against ATF over loopholes in its rule that arbitrarily exempted some ghost gun products. 

GIFFORDS also took the fight to the ghost gun companies themselves. In Philadelphia, GIFFORDS Law Center represented the city alongside the Hausfeld law firm and the City of Philadelphia Law Department to sue largest suppliers of ghost guns in the United States, Polymer80 and JSD Supply. The lawsuit was settled for $1.3 million. 

Additionally, GIFFORDS Law Center, along with California Attorney General Rob Bonta, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, and Keker, Van Nest & Peters, LLP, led a lawsuit that was settled this year against Blackhawk Manufacturing Group, Inc., MDX Corporation, and GS Performance, LLC (Glockstore). Each company has agreed to immediately stop selling firearm parts without serial numbers in California and to stop manufacturing such parts in California. Importantly, the retailers have also agreed to stop misleading consumers about the legality of purchasing, possessing, or assembling firearm products without serial numbers in California. The agreement also included a significant monetary settlement: each retailer will pay civil penalties totaling $675,000: $500,000 for Blackhawk, $120,000 for Glockstore, and $55,000 for MDX. 

During the presidential transition, GIFFORDS called on the incoming Biden administration to close the federal loophole. Within his first months in office, President Biden did just that, announcing that his administration would initiate a rulemaking process to define ghost gun parts as guns. During the public commenting process, GIFFORDS supported the rule directly and drove thousands of supportive public comments.

The rule closes the loophole that has allowed for the proliferation of untraceable firearms. It defines the unfinished parts used to make ghost guns as firearms, which means that those who sell them will have to be licensed, will have to serialize them and retain records, and will have to conduct a background check before every sale. This critical rule stops the flood of ghost guns at its source.