The U.S Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on October 8 to determine whether the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives overstepped in effectively outlawing certain kits used to make homemade, untraceable ghost guns.  

The dispute in Garland v. VanDerStok arose after the ATF began requiring sellers of “ready to build” ghost gun kits to add serial numbers to some parts and conduct background checks on prospective buyers.

The regulation, implemented in 2022, came at the direction of President Joe Biden after evidence emerged that ghost guns were increasingly being used in crimes. A March 2023 ATF report found that law enforcement recovered more than 72,000 ghost guns between 2016 and 2022. More than 1,200 of those weapons surfaced in connection to homicides and attempted homicides.

Among the plaintiffs challenging the regulation is the Firearms Policy Coalition. An investigation by The Trace published in July found that the FPC was a major player in a far-reaching, multimillion dollar legal campaign to overturn gun laws nationwide. 

John Donohue, a Stanford University law and economics professor, said a Supreme Court ruling could cause the number of ghost guns in circulation to surge and have a chilling effect on the ATF’s use of regulations to tackle emerging public safety threats. 

“If the ATF is struck down on this, they’ll be much more cautious moving forward because they’ll realize it’s a wasted effort on this court,” Donohue said. “They won’t have the systematic ability to broaden the attack on the direct pipeline of firearms to the criminal element.” 

In a similar case in June, the Supreme Court struck down the ATF’s ban on bump stocks, aftermarket devices that allow semiautomatic rifles to fire rapidly like machine guns.

Timothy Lytton, a law professor at Georgia State University, said the justices will now determine whether the ATF exceeded its authority by regulating ghost guns without permission from Congress. 

“There is a question of statutory interpretation here,” Lytton said. “The ATF is authorized by federal legislation to regulate firearms, and through its process to regulate firearms, is extending the regulation to firearms parts kits.” 

VanDerStok is the first gun case to reach the Supreme Court since June, when the justices reversed a legal precedent known as Chevron deference, which gave agencies like the ATF more latitude to interpret laws they are charged with implementing. 

Donohue said the Chevron ruling could make the court take a harder line on how much leeway the ATF has to make rules. 

“The Supreme Court in its current posture thinks the administrative state has gotten too powerful,” Donohue said. “They seem to be trying to cut back on it across the board.” 

The court is expected to issue its ruling in 2025.