March 26, 2025
Today the Supreme Court in BONDI v. VANDERSTOK ET AL. upheld life-saving rules created by the ATF during the Biden Administration that regulated "Ghost Guns" and the sale and purchase of "do-it yourself" kits in an effort to limit access to unserialized, unmarked and untraceable firearms, which have been increasingly used in the commission of crimes in America.
Jeremy Stein, Executive Director of States United stated, "Ghost guns represent an escalating threat to public safety. The Supreme Court has closed a critical loophole by preventing dangerous criminals from bypassing otherwise strong State and Federal gun laws. Gun violence in now the number one killer of children, and was officially declared a public health crisis by the US Surgeon General.
Ghost guns are untraceable, unmarked, unserialized guns that are often sold in kits, or partially completed (known as 80% receivers), to bypass state and federal laws that have enacted age restrictions, require licensing and/or background checks. Ghost guns also include guns that can be made with a 3-D printer. A ghost gun was the weapon of choice of a 14-year-old boy who shot and killed a New Jersey Police Detective this month. A ghost gun was used by a Northern California mass shooter in November 2017, who was prohibited from possessing firearms because of a restraining order. His rampage killed five people, including his wife, and concluded with an assault on an elementary school using semi-automatic rifles that he made himself. In 2016, a Baltimore man fired at police with a homemade AR-15. The most notable and tragic was in 2013, when a shooter built a homemade assault rifle using an unfinished receiver and embarked on a shooting spree on a Southern California college campus, resulting in six deaths including the shooter. The shooter had previously failed a firearms background check.
15 States have passed laws regulating or banning ghost guns. (CA, CO, CT, DE, HI, IL, MD, MA, NV, NJ, NY, OR, RI, VT, WA)
