FIREARMS SUPPORTERS SUE TO BLOCK SAN DIEGO’S BAN ON GHOST GUNS

Lawsuit filed hours after mayor signs ordinance Thursday

Gun rights advocates have filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging San Diego’s newly signed ordinance banning ghost guns in the city.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in San Diego federal court, seeks to block enforcement of the ban prohibiting the possession, purchase, sale, receipt and transportation of non-serialized, unfinished frames and receivers, and non-serialized firearms, all of which are commonly known as ghost guns.

Ghosts guns are do-ityourself firearms assembled by hand from parts that sometimes come in prepackaged kits. The parts — like an unfinished gun frame — are not classified as guns so they have no serial numbers, and therefore can’t be traced by law enforcement.

The suit was filed just hours after Mayor Todd Gloria signed the ordinance — dubbed Eliminate Nonserialized Untraceable Firearm, or E.N.U.F. It is expected to go into effect Oct. 23.

The lawsuit filed on behalf of the Firearms Policy Coalition, San Diego County Gun Owners PAC and San Diego residents James Fahr, Desiree Bergman and Colin Rudolph, contends that the ban violates the Second Amendment rights of lawabiding San Diegans.

“The right of individuals to self-manufacture arms for self-defense and other lawful purposes is part and parcel of the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms and an important front in the battle to secure fundamental rights against abusive government regulations like San Diego’s unconstitutional ban,” said Adam Kraut, FPC’S senior director of Legal Operations.

In the plaintiffs’ request for an injunction, they state that “such a broad prohibition against the exercise of constitutional rights, untailored in any way and untethered from any legitimate interest that could be achieved, wouldn’t be tolerated for a moment if the rights being targeted were secured under the First Amendment.

“Just the same, it cannot be tolerated here, where it targets rights of equal importance secured under the Second Amendment — specifically, the right to keep and bear arms.”

The ordinance, authored by City Councilmember Marni von Wilpert, came in response to a reported increase in the proliferation of ghost guns in the city, and closely followed a deadly shooting in the Gaslamp Quarter that police say was committed with a ghost gun. Authorities say the suspected shooter was legally prohibited from possessing firearms.

San Diego police say that the number of ghost guns retrieved by law enforcement has risen steadily each year, with 2021 already surpassing the number of ghost guns impounded by police in all of 2019 and 2020. The department says ghost guns accounted for nearly 20 percent of all firearms seized by police this year.