Some more court news. The U.S Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case about so-called “ghost guns”. While a 3-judge panel for the 5th circuit of the U.S Court of Appeals ruled in 2023 that the Biden administration’s 2022 rule on non-serialized firearms was unconstitutional, the Solicitor General (ElizabethPrelogar) asked the Supreme Court to hear the case. On Monday this week, the Court agreed to put it on their docket.
According to The Washington Post, the two sides in this case disagree on whether the kits count as firearms under the 1968 Gun Control Act. The Biden administration says they fall “within the plain meaning of the act’s definition of ‘firearm.’ ” Opponents say the 2022 rule “expanded the regulatory definition of ‘firearm’ beyond the Gun Control Act’s bounds.”
The Post added, in a brief supporting Prelogar’s petition, attorneys general for more than a dozen states and Washington, D.C., defended what they called “a common-sense regulation.” (gee, where have we heard that phrase before?) They said individual states have tried to fight gun violence but cited “a natural limit to states’ abilities to combat a nationwide problem that crosses state borders.” The federal rule, they said, helps by trying “to keep ghost guns out of the hands of violent criminals.”
Challengers to the federal rule say the Biden administration’s directive is unlawful and that ATF “overreached by effectively attempting to amend the [Gun Control Act] itself.”
The federal rule “upsets the delicate balance struck by Congress between the commercial production and sale of firearms and the noncommercial making of firearms by law-abiding citizens,” wrote the challengers.
Along these same lines we learned that National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) recently found that out of nearly 964 million ammo magazines sold from 1990 to 2021, about 717 million can hold more than ten rounds. When anti-gunners say the Bruen decision should point to a time where muskets were used, you only have to go to 1990 – when numbers began to be tallied – to know that magazines with 10 or more round capacity are prevalent and in common use.
Last Saturday night your President and your Secretary represented KRPA at joint gala held by the Central New Jersey Firearm Owners and the DC Project folks. Yep, and on our own nickel, too. We represented Pennsylvania and listened to terrific speeches from national Second Amendment leaders like Dick Heller (District of Columbia v. Heller) and Lucretia Hughes (Real News with Lucretia). We also heard an impassioned speech by Gabby Franco, a former Venezuelan shooting Olympian who explained why she left the communist nation, and how we as free Americans cannot turn our back on our God-given human rights discussed in the U.S. Constitution.