WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court is hearing a case on ghost gun regulations Tuesday that could have a ripple effect on the DMV.
Ghost guns are the often-untraceable firearms built from weapon parts kits or various parts bought separately — so they are not attached to a serial number.
DC Police, in particular, have often discussed their increased prevalence in the District and their frequent use in crimes.
It's much harder to hold people accountable for making, selling, and purchasing guns illegally if the gun cannot be traced.
That's why in 2022, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives clarified the definition of "firearm" in the Gun Control Act of 1968 to include weapon parts kits.
That simple change means that manufacturers and sellers of these kits are now subject to the same rules as commercial makers and sellers, including obtaining licenses, marking their products with serial numbers, running background checks on buyers, and keeping transfer records.
Opponents of the rule change said the ATF overstepped and that much like woodworking tools do not equate to a ready-made shed, parts of a gun do not equate to a gun itself.
"It's a case that deals with the power of the ATF, a federal agency, to issue a regulation that says - we're going to treat ghost guns, those guns that you can get as an online kit, there's no serial number, there are no background checks. The ATF, a federal agency, tried to say - we want to treat ghost guns the same as all other firearms under federal law, meaning you would need a serial number, you would need background checks," CBS News Legal Contributor, Jennifer Levinson said.
DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb joined AGs in about 20 other cities across the country in urging the Supreme Court to uphold the rule.
“Unlicensed, undetectable ghost guns have been flooding into communities across the District and country at an alarming rate over the past decade," said Attorney General Schwalb in July. "These untraceable weapons were bypassing existing gun laws—like background checks—and increasingly became the weapon of choice for those who commit violent crimes. I urge the Supreme Court uphold this commonsense gun safety regulation that simply treats ghost guns like any other firearm.”
He said in 2018, DC Police recovered 25 ghost guns.
Four years later in 2022, they recovered 524.
Since the new rule took effect, AG Schwalb said ghost gun recoveries have started to decrease for the first time in six years – down to 407 last year.
In a four-year span from 2017 to 2021, there was a roughly tenfold increase in the number of ghost guns submitted to the ATF by law enforcement agencies for tracing, according to the Biden administration.
The ATF's rule does not prohibit people who can legally own guns from buying the kits and making them at home.
A federal district judge invalidated the rule last year, finding that the ATF cannot regulate the firearm components in keeping with federal law, according to CBS. A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit agreed, concluding that the rule exceeded Congress' limits on agency authority.
In an emergency relief decision, the Supreme Court decided to halt the district court's order striking down the ghost gun rule. That means the rule will remain in place until the Supreme Court issues its decision, likely by the end of June 2025.