July 29 (UPI) — Supreme Court Justice Sameul Alito has temporarily halted a lower court’s decision to block the implementation of the Biden administration’s regulations on so-called “ghost guns.”
Alito’s order issued Friday pauses the lower court’s ruling until Aug. 4 while the court reviews the government’s filing. Gun advocates will have until Wednesday to respond.
Gun rights advocates sued to block the new regulations and a Texas court in June ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, vacating the rules nationally.
Subsequently, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth District mostly declined to reverse the Texas courts ruling.
“Once these guns are sold, the damage is done: Some will already be in the hands of criminals and other prohibited persons — and when they are inevitably used in crimes, they are untraceable,” U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote in the administration’s emergency application to the Supreme Court this week.
The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms last year cracked down on ghost guns by reclassifying the component kits as firearms.
Ghost guns, firearms that are sold without all their complete components assembled or are sold in untraceable pieces, have become increasingly common, with most large-scale firearms distributors in the U.S. selling at least some ghost gun components.
In 2021, nearly 20,000 ghost guns were recovered by law enforcement nationwide.
