We’ve been able to lawfully make guns since before this nation was this nation. Homemade firearms are a part of the fabric of America, and while not everyone has any interest in making their own, a lot of people do. What’s more, preventing people from making their own firearms is a key necessity for any government considering becoming more and more tyrannical.
After all, how can you restrict guns if people can just make their own?
But the ATF has decided, once again, to overstep its authority and started trying to restrict the materials people use to make their own.
This, of course, led to a challenge which is now headed to the Supreme Court.
A group of anti-gun attorneys general have filed an amicus brief in support of the regulations.
NJ AG authorities announced Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin is co-leading a coalition of 20 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief with the Supreme Court.
Officials stated in support of the federal government’s request for review of a lower court decision invalidating commonsense “ghost gun” regulations – regulations that are already showing every indication that they are working as intended to get these deadly weapons off New Jersey streets.
The Final Rule, issued by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), clarifies that the definitions in the federal Gun Control Act regulate ghost guns in the same way as conventional guns.
Ghost guns are weapons without serial numbers that are often made at home from kits or partially complete frames and receivers, which can be purchased without background checks, officials said.
Authorities say these weapons, which are untraceable, have been illegal in New Jersey since 2018.
Officials said the Final Rule ensures that buyers pass background checks before purchasing such kits, that these kits and related parts have a unique serial number, and that these manufacturers keep records so that law enforcement officers can trace any self-made guns later used in a crime.
It also limits gun traffickers’ ability to distribute these illegal weapons into New Jersey, accoridng to officials.
Except it doesn’t actually stop gun traffickers from doing jack squat and it doesn’t stop criminals from building guns in their home workshops.
Those who are so inclined can just buy individual components rather than convenient kits.
“If this doesn’t stop homemade guns, then what’s the problem?” some might ask, which is a fair question because the ATF’s Final Rule doesn’t stop people from making them.
The issue, though, is that the ATF doesn’t really have the authority to tell people they can’t sell kits to facilitate a lawful activity. This is just one in a series of actions by the ATF that involve them overstepping their bounds.
If they’re not slapped down, then they’re just going to keep doing it. They took the bump stock reclassification as a green light; a notice that they can determine the legality of any action involving firearms on their own whims without any concern for Congress.
That’s not how the law is supposed to work.
“But Tom, they said it’s working in states like New Jersey!”
No, it’s not. It’s not working. Violent crime is down across the board, all over the nation, including in a lot of states that have no interest in banning so-called ghost guns. Moreover, we know that homemade, unserialized firearms account for a tiny fraction of firearms used in crime and we also know that if criminals couldn’t get these guns, they’d just get some other firearm instead.
But then again, anti-gunners aren’t really good at looking at information critically.
