New York Attorney General Letitia James joined other attorneys general to urge the Supreme Court to uphold a federal rule that regulates ghost guns, which are untraceable weapons that are often made at home.
The coalition filed an amicus brief in Garland v. VanDerStok, urging the court to reverse a decision by an appeals court overturning this gun safety rule.
As previously stated in Long Island Life & Politics, James and Governor Kathy Hochul lauded the U.S. Supreme Court in its 8-1 decision to reverse the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal’s ruling that a federal law prohibiting persons under a domestic violence restraining order from accessing guns violates the Second Amendment.
“Gun safety laws save lives, and weakening these measures puts Americans in danger,” James said. “Ghost guns are on the rise across the country, and stripping away federal rules that help regulate these deadly weapons will cause the problem to get worse. I am proud to stand with my fellow attorneys general as we call for this commonsense gun safety measure to stay in place, and for more to be done to protect our communities from senseless gun violence.”
As gun violence continues to plague the nation, states are seeing an increase in the number of untraceable, unserialized ghost guns recovered by law enforcement. To combat the growing problem of ghost guns, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) issued a Final Rule in 2022, that clarifies the definition of “firearms” in the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA), to include kits and parts that can be easily converted to fully-functional firearms.
The Final Rule does not ban gun kits, but it subjects gun kits and nearly-complete guns to the same rules as conventionally manufactured guns, including serial number and background check requirements. The rule was struck down by the Court of Appeals’ for the Fifth Circuit, ruling it was an impermissible expansion of the GCA, though the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Final Rule to remain in effect while the appeal proceeds.