California Attorney General Rob Bonta
By RIA ROEBUCK JOSEPH
THE CENTER SQUARE CONTRIBUTOR
(The Center Square) – Nineteen attorneys general including Rob Bonta, attorney General for the state of California, have joined together and filed an amicus brief in the Fifth Circuit in support of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ Final Rule. Enforcement of the rule was disrupted by a preliminary injunction granted by a Texas northern district court until a decision is reached in the VanDerStok v. Garland case. The court found that the longstanding definition of a firearm in federal law was drastically changed by ATF Final Rule in granting the injunction.
The rule, which redefined terms in several of ATF’s previous regulations, is primarily opposed by Second Amendment groups and gun owners who say it gives arbitrary power to the ATF to classify weapons and make decisions on new gun designs. Weapon parts sold as kits are redefined as” firearms.” Dealers are redefined as “gunsmiths” requiring those who sell the kits to serialize the “firearm.” These changes are among some of the many which opponents say pose a real threat to the operation and existence of a gun industry.
In signing on to the amicus, Attorney General Bonta joined Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Washington in support of the brief.
Mr. Bonta expressed his support for the “ATF rule that would help law enforcement protect communities from ghost guns. Ghost guns are unserialized weapons that allow unlicensed manufacturers and illegal possessors to bypass state laws, including California’s requirements on firearm ownership recording and background checks, rendering them largely untraceable by law enforcement.”
California saw a rise in ghost guns from 26 seizures in 2015, to 12,388 in 2021. Between 2013 and 2022 there were fifteen deaths and multiple people injured in events involving privately made firearms in California.
The ATF rule “ limits gun traffickers’ ability to distribute these dangerous weapons into California,” Mr. Bonta said in a statement released by his office. “California has been a leader in regulating ghost guns, but without similar regulations in all 50 states, ghost guns can still find their way into our state. ATF’s nationwide rule will help crack down on the flow of illegal ghost guns across state borders and help us keep our communities safe. My office will continue to stand up for common sense laws that protect Californians from senseless gun violence.”
