Biden expected to release rule on ghost guns in days

[AZProgressive]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration will come out with its long-awaited ghost gun rule — aimed at reining in privately made firearms without serial numbers that are increasingly cropping up at crime scenes — as soon as Monday, three people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.

Completion of the rule comes as the White House and the Justice Department have been under growing pressure to crack down on gun deaths and violent crime in the U.S.

The White House has also been weighing naming Steve Dettelbach, a former U.S. attorney from Ohio, to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, the people said. Biden had to withdraw the nomination of his first nominee, gun-control advocate David Chipman, after the nomination stalled for months because of opposition from Republicans and some Democrats in the Senate.

For nearly a year, the rule has been making its way through the federal regulation process. Gun safety groups and Democrats in Congress have been pushing for the Justice Department to finish the rule for months. It will probably be met with heavy resistance from gun groups and draw litigation in the coming weeks.

https://apnews.com/article/biden-ghost-gun-rule-3ceca4c74b79b684231fbb6e8fc1bf0f

[SoCalDavidS]

1. Not Going To Go Anywhere

ANY form of regulation involving Guns, stands NO CHANCE of getting enacted in America. I do not expect that to change in my lifetime, if ever.

[HeartachesNhangovers]

2. It's a proposed ATF regulation, not a law, so it needs no congressional action.

There's nothing to keep it from being enacted if the administration wants it. Yes, the ATF is supposed to consider and respond to public comments, but that's a low barrier to enactment.

[SoCalDavidS]

3. The Article Says It Will Result In Litigation

There's ZERO chance it survives once it reaches the Supreme Court.

[HeartachesNhangovers]

6. Yes, it will be challenged, but not every challenge makes it to the USSC.

The USSC has the luxury if deciding which cases to consider, and it doesn't accept most gun cases. Trump banned bump stocks over 3 years ago through an ATF regulation and that regulation has not been overturned (yet). And even if the bump stock ban IS eventually overturned, all the companies that were making and selling bump stocks stopped doing it since they couldn't get the regulation stayed pending the outcome of litigation.

The US government is a fearsome legal opponent since it has essentially infinite resources to defend a case and the power to put people in prison if they violate a regulation.

[Amishman]

7. The issue will be if the ATF has the ability to create such a rule under existing law

Their powers are limited to the laws on the books, with wiggle room where definitions were not included in the law itself.

My understanding from talking about this over beers with my gun nut brother-in-law is that these definitions exist to some degree within the law and the ATF's proposed clarified definition might not be compatible with the one in the law itself.

The challenge will.be that the ATF's new rule oversteps their power of interpretation and enforcement of existing law and is effectively creating new laws, which they cannot do.

[SYFROYH]

4. All he has to do is declare them ineligible for sale/transfer without a serial number.

That would solve most problems.

[NickB79]

8. Depends where you draw the line on what constitutes an unfinished receiver

Currently, any receiver (the main part of the gun) below 80% finished isn't considered a firearm, and thus doesn't need a serial number. You buy it, no background check, and you have to cut away some metal and drill some holes, before you can install the trigger, magazine, etc. They sell guides that allow anyone with a few decent power tools and a drill press to make it functional.

If you drop the standard, to say 50% finished before it's recognized as a firearm, it will make it slightly more difficult to finish out, a lot more metal to remove. But, with the advent of 3D printers, precision lathes and mini-CNC machines, anyone with $1000 worth of tools could pretty much machine an AR-15 receiver today from a solid block of aluminum or high-grade polymer in their garage. Computer-controlled equipment is a marvel to watch work.

We've reached the point where home machining has become so easy and cheap that I don't see any simple ways to regulate ghost guns anymore, other than increasing penalties for owning them after the fact. I mean, are we going to start requiring serial numbers and background checks for solid blocks of aluminum, because they have the potential to become ghost guns?

[ripcord]

5. Making laws against ghost guns are easy

Compared to actually stopping something any decent machinist can make.