Supreme Court signals it may uphold Biden’s regulations on ‘ghost gun’ kits

The Supreme Court on Tuesday signaled a willingness to uphold a Biden administration regulation on “ghost guns,” mail-order kits that allow people to build untraceable weapons at home and that are turning up at crime scenes with greater frequency.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday signaled a willingness to uphold a Biden administration regulation on “ghost guns,” mail-order kits that allow people to build untraceable weapons at home and that are turning up at crime scenes with greater frequency. In one of the most closely watched cases of the year, the high court must decide if the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives overstepped its authority with a 2022 regulation that would require ghost gun manufacturers to include serial numbers on the kits and perform background checks on people who purchase them. Several of the court’s conservatives — and all of its liberals — appeared skeptical of the notion that the kits are geared toward a tradition of gunsmithing hobbyists. Chief Justice John Roberts, in particular, brushed off the idea that building the kind of gun kits at issue was equivalent to someone working on a classic car. “Drilling a hole or two, I would think, doesn’t give the same sort of reward that you get from working on your car on the weekends,” Roberts said to the lawyer representing the kit manufacturers. “My understanding is that it’s not terribly difficult for someone to do this.” Peter Patterson, representing the manufacturers and groups that challenged the regulation, said that building the kits is far more complicated than the administration has suggested. In briefing, supporters of the regulation say that most Americans would view a bicycle as a bicycle, even if its pedals were missing. A build-at-home couch from Ikea, they argue, is still a couch before it is assembled. How to draw the line between a collection of parts and a finished product occupied much of the argument, which lasted over an hour.