The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a Biden administration rule that aimed to regulate “ghost guns,” which are unserialized, untraceable firearms built from kits or other matching components.
The case, Garland v. VanDerStok, originated in 2022 after the Biden administration directed the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to require serial numbers, background checks and age verification to buy ghost gun kits online. The regulation relies on authorities granted by the Gun Control Act of 1968.
Gunmakers challenged the regulation in the District Court of Northern Texas, arguing that “ghost guns” cannot be considered as “firearms” under the 1968 law. The District Court of Northern Texas and then the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held for the gunmakers, and ATF appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court held 7-2 in favor of upholding the Biden-era rule, with Justice Neil Gorsuch writing the majority opinion, and Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissenting.
When the case was argued in October 2024, the AAP weighed in with an amicus brief alongside the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Family Physicians, American College of Obstetricians and several other leading medical groups.
The medical groups argued that the proliferation of ghost guns was similar to the “disassembled” or “deactivated” guns that flooded the firearm market in the 1960s, which prompted Congress to pass the Gun Control Act of 1968. The groups went on to assert that this law, which aimed to “prevent guns from falling into the wrong hands” and to “assist law enforcement authorities in investigating serious crimes,” directly support the Biden administration’s rule to regulate ghost guns through the ATF.
In announcing the rule, the Justice Department during the Biden administration shared that the number of suspected ghost guns recovered by authorities had skyrocketed from 1,758 in 2016 to 19,344 in 2021, many of which were connected to homicide or attempted homicide investigations.
The AAP called for the regulation of ghost guns in a 2022 policy statement on reducing firearm-related injuries and deaths.
