Overview
- A federal judge in the Northern District of Texas struck down key parts of the ATF’s 2022 rule on Thursday, holding that the agency’s expanded definitions of frames, receivers and parts kits violate the Second Amendment and are void for vagueness under the Fifth Amendment.
- The opinion said the rule conflicted with America’s historical tradition of private gunsmithing and left people unable to know when a plastic or metal part becomes a regulated firearm, because the rule relied on broad, discretionary factors rather than a clear line.
- The ATF’s Final Rule had required serialization, background checks for certain parts kits, licensing for sellers and longer recordkeeping for frames and receivers to make so-called ghost guns traceable.
- The court entered a permanent injunction protecting the plaintiffs—Defense Distributed and members of the Second Amendment Foundation—but the decision does not yet block the rule on a nationwide basis and is expected to be appealed by the Department of Justice to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
- Industry groups, 3D-printing communities and states with their own ghost-gun laws say the ruling could change enforcement and compliance rules and will likely reshape litigation over how regulators can treat unfinished parts and printed components.