Ghost gun rule won’t do harm, or good

President Joe Biden announced new measures to track the sale of “ghost guns,” untraceable firearms made from do-it-yourself kits. The new rule will require such kits to be produced by licensed manufacturers, and purchasers to pass a background check. This is a reasonable gun control step that will undoubtedly face unreasonable responses.

We strongly support Second Amendment rights, and we expect this won’t make a dramatic difference in gun violence. Violent people will still commit crimes with legal firearms. And criminals bent on breaking laws won’t be dissuaded by yet more laws around certain kinds of guns.

But the law is more than symbolic. If this rule makes it more of a hassle to order “buy build shoot” kits, it’s reasonable to think fewer people will take that step. More importantly, fewer untraceable guns will make it easier for police to investigate offenders.

The Second Amendment establishes a clear right for individuals to own firearms. But it does not establish an absolute right. The late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia applied that logic in District of Columbia v. Heller in 2008: “Like most rights, the Second Amendment right is not unlimited. It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.”

Requiring transparency in the industry that supports ghost guns is not a panacea for gun crime, and it’s not a slippery slope to government oppression. It’s a common sense step that could do some good and will do little harm.