WASHINGTON (CN) — U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito issued a temporary pause Friday on a Texas ruling that threw out the government’s regulations on ghost guns.
Alito’s order put the lower court's ruling on hold until Aug. 4 while the Supreme Court evaluates the government’s emergency application that was filed on Thursday. Gun advocates challenging the case were instructed to file a response brief by Aug. 2.
The government has struggled to regulate and contain the explosion of ghost guns on the market in the last few years. The DIY weapons come in unserialized and untraceable pieces that can be assembled into a functioning firearm in as little as 20 minutes. In 2021, the government said law enforcement recovered over 19,000 ghost guns.
In response, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives created new rules to better regulate these weapons. By reclassifying parts kits as firearms, ATF was able to force companies that sell the kits to obtain a federal firearm license and put serial numbers on the kit parts.
ATF’s new rules met with sharp criticism from gun advocates. A group including gun owners, advocacy groups, and manufacturers of the part kits sued the government to block the new rule. They claim the updated definition of a firearm is unlawful.
Ruling in favor of the gun advocates last month, a federal judge in Texas vacated AFT’s new rules nationwide. The judge said the government had gone beyond its jurisdiction in regulating ghost guns.
A Fifth Circuit panel granted the government a partial stay, but U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar said the appeals court did not go far enough.
“The district court’s universal vacatur is irreparably harming the public and the government by reopening the floodgates to the tide of untraceable ghost guns flowing into our nation’s communities,” Prelogar wrote in the emergency application. “Once those guns are sold, the damage is done: Some will already be in the hands of criminals and other prohibited persons — and when they are inevitably used in crimes, they are untraceable.”
Prelogar argued there was a good chance the high court would reverse the lower court’s ruling if it took up the case.
Gun advocates in this case were the first challengers to make headway on disrupting ATF’s regulations. A Texas firearms dealer tried to do the same last year, however, the case was shot down.
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