Posted on 03/26/2025 11:12:12 AM PDT by Dr. Franklin
In a gut punch to Second Amendment defenders, the Supreme Court today upheld a Biden administration rule clamping down on “ghost guns,” those untraceable firearms that patriots and hobbyists have long cherished as a symbol of American freedom.
With a 7-2 decision, the court greenlit a radical overreach by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), mandating serial numbers, background checks, and age verification for gun kits bought online.
Last year, a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a 2022 rule aimed at weapons that could be built from parts bought online without a background check exceeded the agency’s authority.
...
The rule redefined the legal meaning of “firearm,” “frame,” and “receiver” as written in the Gun Control Act of 1968.
Judge Kurt Engelhardt wrote in the decision that “law-making power—the ability to transform policy into real-world obligations—lies solely with the legislative branch.”
“An agency cannot label conduct lawful one day and felonious the next—yet that is exactly what ATF accomplishes through its Final Rule,” he wrote.
...
At the heart of the case, Bondi v. VanDerStok, was the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)’s 2022 rule redefining the term “firearm” under the Gun Control Act of 1968 to include certain weapon parts kits and unfinished frames and receivers—items that law-abiding hobbyists, veterans, and collectors have used for decades to legally build their own firearms at home.
Despite the plain language of the statute, the Supreme Court—led by Justice Neil Gorsuch and joined by the Court’s liberal bloc—found that the ATF’s sweeping interpretation was not “facially inconsistent” with the law. This decision hands the previous administration a major victory.
In other words, your partially milled piece of aluminum is now a “firearm” because the ATF says so.
(Excerpt) Read more at thegatewaypundit.com ...
If ATF goes down the drain, this means nothing, right ?
Until the next gun-grabbing, America-hating, administration. And the records will be there.
We need Congress to change the law to stop this crap. What a disaster!
“In a gut punch to Second Amendment defenders,”
If, as Alito and Thomas say, the gun kit parts are not firearms, then second amendment protections don’t apply.
The real test should have been and should be whether the Gun Control Act of 1968 is Constitutional as per recent SCOTUS decisions. As I read it, the question was whether or not the ATF exceeded its authority under the GCA.
And since the ATF in now under new management, I expect the new definition is or soon will be changed. (Barring a District Court judge ruling otherwise, of course).
Undoing Chevron deference?
More here:
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4306878/posts
https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4306880/posts
😊👍
So the Supreme Court has decided that the Bruen decision was meaningless. There were no serial numbers required on guns and most guns were made by individual artisans, often for themselves in the first half of the 19th century.
There is no historic basis for this restriction.
Bruen is dead. And he was so young.
I believe this is for the “kits” that included the 80% lower, the jigs and the tooling to complete the lower.
80% lowers and parts are still available and legal.
Next up: common sense lathe and mill restrictions ... and Pop Tart nibbling control!
Yep.
The ATF should go the way of Dept. Of Ed.
Stamp the same serial number on
every “gun”...
11
It will apply to whatever a judge says it applies to.
Then the poor saps involved can fight for a decade to hear what a majority of The Nine say.
This bodes ill for other Trump administration cases reaching these black basted bozos-Supremos. They will be lazy, take the easy way out, and give Trump cases a 50/50 split for yea or nay.
You know who these jerks really play to? And want admiration from? Their peers in the legal profession USA-— “As of early 2024, the United States has approximately 1,322,649 active lawyers”
Change the GCA of 1968?
Why can’t Congress do anything? They have abdicated so much of their authority to the Executive.
“The ATF should go the way of Dept. Of Ed.”
The Dept. Of Ed. has gone nowhere. To my most current information, Congress has yet to repeal the 1979 law which created the Dept.
Just saying the Dept will be paused for 4 years has value. but its value is small.
The Dept. Of Ed. has gone nowhere. The next President will restore it, I guarantee it.
We better get Congress to repeal that law. - it’s what I want anyways. This court case puts much more emphasis on the need for Congress to pass a law repealing the ATF - another action Congress will not do. Sigh.
The judicial branch has just declared war against the American people plain and simple. We’re heading straight into a nasty revolution. If we do not take our country back we are done. I believe that we will not last till the end of the year if these rogue Judges continuing slashing and dicing the constitution. I for one am ready for what is coming. Pray that I am wrong but the atmosphere is ripe for it!
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