(UnitedVoice.com) – In April 2022, President Joe Biden announced the final rule cracking down on “ghost guns.” Conservatives sued the administration, contending the rule violated the Second Amendment. A Texas judge ruled in favor of gun activists. Now, the US Supreme Court has overruled the decision by the lower court.
The administration expanded the definition of a “firearm receiver” to include kits that allow people to build weapons at home. The guns do not have serial numbers, making it hard, or impossible, for police departments to trace the weapons. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) claimed there were at least 692 instances where someone used a ghost gun to carry out an attempted homicide or homicide.
In June, District Judge Reed O’Connor of the Northern District of Texas issued a decision blocking the president’s new definition. He stated that the laws passed by Congress under the Gun Control Act of 1968 required precise application because they used precise language. In August, the high court voted 5-4 to place a hold on the ruling from O’Connor.
Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett and Chief Justice John Roberts sided with their liberal colleagues and blocked the lower court’s ruling. None of the justices gave a reason for their decision, which is not uncommon. The decision spelled bad news for the case as a whole.
On October 16, the justices once again issued a 5-4 ruling allowing the president’s ghost gun rule to stand. Like their decision earlier this summer, they didn’t give a reason for the ruling. Nonetheless, it was seen as a rebuke to the lower courts that tried to defy the court’s August ruling.
The ruling doesn’t mean the issue is put to bed. The high court could still make a more comprehensive ruling down the road. These were just emergency motions that the court had to decide on quickly.
Copyright 2023, UnitedVoice.com
