TOLEDO, Ohio — The U.S. Supreme Court is looking into whether or not the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms was acting within the law when it changed the definition of a firearm in 2022 to curb "ghost guns," or homemade weapons used in crimes.
According to the ATF, there has been a tremendous spike in recent years of criminals getting their own firearms from mail-order kits online. These guns have no serial number, making them untraceable.
So, the ATF wanted to change the definition of a firearm to include kits like these, and based on early reactions from the Supreme Court, this loophole might finally come to a close.
Any gun from a modern manufacturer will have a serial number. If it's ever used in a crime, police can use this number to trace back all of the people who have legally purchased the weapon, giving them another lead in their investigation.
"I've been in numerous cases where that's been a key piece of evidence to identify a shooter," said Daryl McCormick, a special agent with the Columbus division of ATF.
But recently, that method of crime-solving has been at risk. In the past few years, McCormick said there has been a rash of untraceable weapons found at crime scenes, with more than 25,000 ghost guns being seized last year alone.
"At that point in time there is no record for us to follow, so it ends up being a vital lead for law enforcement to utilize isn't available," he said.
McCormick said mail-order kits are not as common in Ohio as they are in states with stricter gun regulations like New York or California.
"There were kits that were being sold in the mail that would take 30 minutes to an hour for a person to assemble," he said.
It was legal, too, because when the definition of a firearm was written back in 1968, the kits would not be classified as firearms. McCormick said that regulation sufficed until about 10 or 15 years ago when some guns no longer fit the definition and more homemade weapons began appearing.
So, in April of 2022, ATF set a new definition for firearms, which included the kits and would require all kit sellers to be registered and all the parts to be given a serial number.
The idea was immediately challenged by the lower courts.
But on Tuesday, CBS News reported a majority of the US Supreme Court was seemingly sympathetic to the idea, signaling a potential turning point for these ghost guns.
Peter Arquette, the owner of Adco Firearms in Sylvania, said this is government overreach.
"ATF doesn't make laws, so when laws need to be updated, instead of going through the proper legal channels, government bureaucracies try to make up rules. They're trying to change what the definition of what a firearm is, what a receiver is and that's not their place," said Arquette.
At this time it's unclear when the Supreme Court will give its official ruling on this case.