Supreme Court Could Overturn One of the Most Effective Gun Safety Measures in Memory

Next week, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Garland v. VanDerStoka case with life and death implications for gun violence in the United States. The justices will consider a rule issued by the Biden administration cracking down on “ghost guns” — fully functional firearms that are disproportionately used to commit murder, domestic violence and terrorism. For years, ghost gun manufacturers have sold kits to consumers online containing the parts needed to build an AR-15-style handgun or rifle. Customers could purchase the kit without a background check, then build the weapon in just 20 minutes using a YouTube video. These guns did not have serial numbers, making them almost impossible for law enforcement to trace when they were used in crimes.

The Supreme Court allowed new restrictions on the sale of ghost guns to take effect in August 2023, albeit by a 5-4 vote, with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joining the liberals . The court will now decide whether to uphold the rule on the merits. In a new episode of Amicus, Mark Joseph Stern discussed this high-stakes case with Eric Tirschwell, executive director and chief legal counsel of Everytown Law, the litigation arm of Everytown for Gun Safety. Below is an excerpt of their conversation, edited and condensed for clarity.

Mark Joseph Stern: Just to make one thing clear: the rule we’re talking about here doesn’t outright ban ghost guns, does it? It simply says that if you want to sell ghost guns, you have to follow all the rules that other gun dealers follow.

Eric Tirschwell: That’s correct. The rule requires that anyone selling kits that can be easily converted into a usable firearm must follow the most important regulations of the Gun Control Act, including putting serial numbers on each firearm and checking the background of each buyer.

Last year, a federal report found that the use of ghost guns to commit crimes has increased more than 1,000 percent in recent years. Can you talk about the sudden proliferation of these weapons and their impact on violent crime?

In 2017 and 2018, law enforcement recovered 1,000 and even 2,000 of these ghost guns across the country. We saw the number of recoveries begin to increase around 2019, and by 2021, that number had increased to 19,000. By 2022, law enforcement was recovering approximately 25,000 of these ghost guns from crime scenes across the country. The industry’s business model is fundamentally based on circumventing gun laws, selling to people who otherwise would not be able to purchase firearms. We’re talking about violent criminals, juveniles and domestic abusers, who can go online and buy “a gun in a box,” the industry’s term to describe these kits. Not surprisingly, these guns became the weapon of choice for people who couldn’t get their hands on a gun legally and wanted to misuse it.

It appears that sellers frequently bragged about how they were skirting the law or exploiting a loophole. The briefs in this case feature websites that told consumers: “Normally you might not be able to buy a gun, but with us you are safe.” »

Absolutely. A lot of online sellers were promoting the fact that there were no background checks and no paper trail. A ghost gun seller actually put a picture on the receiver – the main component of an AR-15 – that had an image of a hand with a raised middle finger. It said, “Here is your serial number. “I think that says a lot about how the industry feels about whether it should be subject to regulation.

Lower courts initially blocked the ghost gun rule, but the Supreme Court allowed it to take effect last year. This has been in effect for some time now. What was the impact on the ground?

Initial data released over the past six to nine months shows that the number of ghost gun recoveries has begun to decline, sometimes significantly. This clearly shows that this new rule, along with other pressures on the industry, including some lawsuits filed by my office against some of the industry’s biggest players, are working. These things have pretty much crippled this industry right now. The question before the Supreme Court is: Will they keep the business closed and keep the use of ghost guns in crimes on a downward trajectory? Or will they open this box? If they reopen this box, it will have truly tragic consequences for public safety.

My impression is that most gun cases reach the Supreme Court with mostly theoretical implications. No one knows exactly what will happen if the court overturns this or that law. But here we have a real-world experience in which a rule went into effect and had an immediate and significant impact on reducing violent crime. It reduces crime in cities that have seen a surge in murders and other violent crimes committed with ghost guns. From now on, the issues for the Supreme Court are, or should be, very clear and concrete. We have very clear evidence that if the court strikes down this rule, it will essentially revive some of the companies that have essentially gone bankrupt. This will allow these companies to continue flooding the streets with ghost gun kits and will virtually guarantee that people will die needlessly from being shot by guns that should have remained illegal if SCOTUS had done its job right.

That’s absolutely true. We’re talking tens of thousands of these weapons recovered from crime scenes every year in their prime. They have a big impact on teenagers in particular, as they can connect to the internet from the comfort of their bedroom and, with just a credit card or even a gift card, they can have a craft kit delivered to them firearms at home. They can put it together without much skill, and suddenly they have a working gun that they can’t walk into a gun store and buy because they’re too young. Predictably, before this rule was passed, we saw teenagers doing terrible things with these weapons. We represented two families who each lost a son to a ghost shooting; Another teen showed up to what was supposed to be a fight to settle an issue, but he showed up with a ghost gun he ordered online and murdered two teens.

We have also seen law enforcement targeted by criminals armed with ghost guns. We had a case in California where two Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies were ambushed while sitting in their patrol car by someone with a long criminal record. However, he managed to obtain a ghost gun and inflict serious injuries on these officers. It’s really a question of public order. You know, when the Biden administration announced the new rule in 2022, the NRA claimed it would do nothing to combat violent crime. It was an absurd statement – ​​absolutely false. All evidence shows that this rule has helped reduce violent crime and will continue to do so if the Supreme Court allows it.