The Supreme Court and ghost guns

The Biden’s Handler’s DOJ has done it again. Actually, they did it in 2022, but the Supreme Court has granted cert. The issue is so-called “ghost guns,” guns without a unique serial number.

This stems from the Gun Control Act of 1968, which required a serial number for every firearm manufactured in America. Not every manufacturer before then used serial numbers. The system established by the GCA works like this: serial numbers are recorded on each ATF Form 4473, which must be filled out at the retail point of sale for each gun.  Those forms are kept by every Federal Firearm Licensee (FFL).

It’s illegal for the federal government to keep a firearm registry of any kind, but that has not stopped Democrat/socialist/communist (D/s/c) administrations from trying to do just that. Trust in government, particularly relating to gun issues, is at an all-time low.  

Graphic: Glock 43. Author

Here’s the background of the current case:

That provision of GCA has always been interpreted as referring to finished firearms. However, in 2022 Garland promulgated a rule extending that requirement to firearm components. This would significantly increase the regulatory reach of the Biden administration over the firearms industry and increase the cost of making and selling firearms, rendering them less affordable and accessible to American citizens, and forcing many firearm makers and sellers out of business.

The Biden-Garland regulation was challenged under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). Judge Reed O’Connor in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas agreed that Garland’s regulation exceeds any lawful authority the federal government has under GCA. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed in relevant part.

In recent years, many Americans have enjoyed building their own rifles and handguns from parts kits, which is entirely legal. Many of those kits do not have serial numbers, and a gun made from raw materials by someone with the necessary skills and machinery likewise has no serial number. These are the “ghost guns” so commonly demonized by contemporary D/s/cs.  

Serial numbers are of little use. Criminals, by nature lazy sorts, rarely if ever obtain guns by building their own. Their guns come largely from thefts and the black market. “Ghost guns” are made and possessed almost exclusively by Americans who will never commit a crime, and certainly not with the guns they make.

During my police career, I never solved a crime by tracing a serial number, nor am I aware of anyone who did. Anti-gun/liberty cracktivists, and Hollywood would have us believe serial numbers are an essential crime fighting tool. Reality, as usual, is otherwise.

The police find a handgun left at a robbery scene and enter the serial number into their computer. The all-knowing government database tells them it was bought by Joe Normal of 1234 Average Street, Placid, Nebraska, at Placid Guns, on 11-02-2010. Ah-hah! They have their man, and the case is solved in less than an hour, minus commercials.

Not quite. There is no such government database, and even if there were, all it would tell the police is the identity of the original buyer 14 years earlier. They would still have to prove Joe Normal was present at the time and place of the crime, and used that handgun in violation of the law. What’s most likely is Joe traded that gun in for another one in another state sometime in the past, and the ownership trail moves on, indecipherably, from there.   

If the robbery happened in Placid, NE, and if the police went to every FFL licensee in the area and checked their records, they might be able to find Joe’s 4473. If Placid Guns computerized all their 4473s before 2010, that is. If not, they’d have to go through every paper copy on file at Placid Guns to try to find that serial number. Imagine if the robbery happened in another town or state.

A gun might be traced through manufacturer records, to the wholesale buyer, then to the FFL licensee, but again, the problem of finding the 4473 and putting the gun in the original purchaser’s hand at the crime scene remains.

A serial number, if the victim of a burglary kept a record of it, might help if the burglary was reported and the local police agency entered that serial number into the federal NCIC database.  If the burglar was caught with the gun and an officer ran an NCIC check, the gun might show as stolen. That’s less common than one might imagine. But other than that, there is little reason to require serial numbers.

There is, however, every reason to prevent government from assuming powers the Constitution does not grant. Hopefully, the Supreme Court will agree.

Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.