U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, has ruled that a major regulation from the Biden administration violates the Second Amendment and due process protections. The decision, issued this week, invalidated the 2022 rule targeting so-called “ghost guns”—firearms assembled from disassembled parts without serial numbers.
In his ruling, O’Connor determined that the regulation conflicts with the nation’s “historical tradition” of personal gunsmithing and self-manufacture. He stated: “The Court cannot conclude that the Final Rule’s imposition of ambiguous and far-reaching regulations, which would restrict access to component parts thereby inhibiting home gunsmithing, comports with the Second Amendment.” The judge also found the rule unconstitutionally vague under the Due Process Clause.
The Biden administration has argued ghost guns enable citizens to bypass bureaucratic red tape and evade surveillance. Federal data indicates these firearms represent only about 1.5% of recovered weapons at crime scenes across over 30 cities in 2024. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) reported receiving 620,000 trace requests in 2022, with just 19,000 identified as ghost guns. Gun Owners of America has noted that violent crimes involving blunt objects far exceed those linked to ghost guns.
