Washington
Supreme Court reinstates regulation of ghost guns, firearms without serial numbers
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is reinstating a regulation aimed at reining in the proliferation of ghost guns, firearms without serial numbers that have been turning up at crime scenes across the nation in increasing numbers.
The court on Tuesday voted 5-4 to put on hold a ruling from a federal judge in Texas that invalidated the Biden administration’s regulation of ghost gun kits. The regulation will be in effect while the administration appeals the ruling to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans — and potentially the Supreme Court.
Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas would have kept the regulation on hold during the appeals process.
The Justice Department had told the court that local law enforcement agencies seized more than 19,000 ghost guns at crime scenes in 2021, a more than tenfold increase in just five years.
“The public-safety interests in reversing the flow of ghost guns to dangerous and otherwise prohibited persons easily outweighs the minor costs that respondents will incur,” Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, the administration’s top Supreme Court lawyer, wrote in a court filing.
The new rule was issued last year and changed the definition of a firearm under federal law to include unfinished parts, like the frame of a handgun or the receiver of a long gun, so they can be tracked more easily. Those parts must be licensed and include serial numbers. Manufacturers must also run background checks before a sale — as they do with other commercially made firearms. The requirement applies regardless of how the firearm was made, meaning it includes ghost guns made from individual parts or kits or by 3D printers.
The rule does not prohibit people from purchasing a kit or any type of firearm.
U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor, in Fort Worth, Texas, struck down the rule in late June, concluding that it exceeded the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ authority. O’Connor wrote that the definition of a firearm in federal law does not cover all the parts of a gun. Congress could change the law, he wrote.
Lawyers for individuals, businesses and advocacy groups challenging the rule told the Supreme Court that O’Connor was right and that the ATF had departed from more than 50 years of regulatory practice in expanding the definition of a firearm.
Tennessee
Security guard on trial for on-duty fatal shooting near restaurant
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A security guard charged with second-degree murder over a 2018 fatal shooting outside the Nashville restaurant where he was working headed to trial Monday, a case that hinges on whether he was justified to fire at a man involved in a shootout outside the business.
Nathan Glass faces an indictment in the October 2018 death of 25-year-old Deangelo Knox, who was engaged in a shootout with people in another car outside a well-known Nashville restaurant named The Pharmacy Burger Parlor & Beer Garden.
During opening arguments, Assistant District Attorney David Jones contended that Knox was fleeing and fighting for his life, returning fire at the other car before Glass shot him. Jones said no gunfire was aimed toward the restaurant until Glass fired his shot, attracting attention and gunfire from those in the shootout.
Glass “chose to murder a crime victim when he chose to shoot Deangelo Knox in the head,” Jones said.
In response, Glass’ attorney argued that Knox was looking for a “gun battle” with the people in the other car, and Glass acted within his duty as a security guard to protect himself and others.
“What Nathan Glass did was justified,” said David Veile, Glass’s defense attorney. “What Deangelo Knox did was not.”
Knox crashed his car into a parked car and got out as the gunfire continued, prosecutors said. Glass shot Knox from behind the cover of the door of the restaurant, the prosecutor said.
The arguments kicked off the trial without mentioning a key point in the case’s backdrop: Glass was hired as a Nashville police officer after the shooting.
Months before the shooting, Glass had been admitted to the police academy. His entry into the program was paused due to the investigation into the shooting. He was allowed to attend the academy in March 2019 after an assistant district attorney determined prosecutors couldn’t overcome Glass’s claim of self-defense and defense of others. That assistant district attorney was no longer working with the office as of a couple weeks prior to Glass’ indictment in November 2020.
In October 2020, Glass was decommissioned of his policing authority by the Nashville department pending an investigation by its Office of Professional Accountability into social media posts by Glass in 2013. The social media posts attacked former President Barack Obama, immigrants who are in the country illegally and Muslims, the internal police investigation shows.
The local NAACP chapter raised concerns about the posts by Glass, who is white. Knox was Black.
Police were only checking job applicants’ Facebook profiles at the time and didn’t search for or ask about a potential Instagram page, an internal investigation found. Now, Nashville Police have a full-time social media analyst to wade through multiple social media sites for background checks, according to department spokesperson Don Aaron.
Glass resigned as an officer in late 2021, with disciplinary action pending from his department, as police investigators cited the grand jury’s indictment.
A lawsuit by Knox’s family over the shooting against Glass and other parties was settled, without settlement details made public.
