California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, backed by the Giffords Law Center, filed a lawsuit against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to force it to regulate the sales of 80% firearms. Two named plaintiffs in the lawsuit are fathers of students killed in the 2019 shooting at Saugus High School. The suit asks for a court order overruling the ATF’s opinion on unregulated sales of 80% lowers and frames.
“If you can assemble Ikea furniture you can probably assemble a ghost gun. And you can probably do it faster,” said Hannah Shearer, litigation director of the nonprofit legal organization Giffords Law Center.
Shearer, who is co-counsel in the lawsuit, said state gun laws have been undermined by the ATF’s refusal to treat the parts used to build homemade guns as firearms. This allows “unscrupulous” DIY firearm sellers to flood the gun market.
“The ATF has specifically exempted them from the federal definition of a firearm, meaning federal gun laws don’t apply to them. As a result, people can order and build these guns without passing background check or even verifying their age,” she said. “This has opened the biggest loophole you can imagine in our federal and state gun laws.”
– Maria Dinzeo in California Sues Feds Over Refusal to Crack Down on ‘Ghost Guns’