Gun parts
Biden wants kit guns assembled at home from parts purchased online to have serial numbers and be subject to background checks just like other guns (see story here).
That seems like a very reasonable idea, but Republicans hate it.
“The Constitution does not authorize the federal government to prevent you from making your own firearm,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) fumed (see story here). It doesn’t say it can’t, either, but in any case Biden’s rule doesn’t say you can’t, it only requires a serial number and background check, just like for other guns, so what’s the problem?
“Ghost guns” are guns without serial numbers, which makes them untraceable, which criminals love for obvious reasons. If you kill someone do you want the cops to find out you purchased the murder weapon? If you’re a convicted felon buying gun parts online do you want to submit to a background check?
The Second Amendment says,
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
Nothing in there prohibits serial numbers on guns. And the Supreme Court, which is responsible for interpreting that language, has allowed the government to require a federal license to possess a machinegun, so why can’t it require guns to have serial numbers?
The more salient question is, why do Republicans oppose this? As serial numbers don’t prevent law-abiding citizens from acquiring guns, the only plausible explanation is they want criminals to have guns. Which strikes me as a very stupid idea.
Related: Read essay on GOP opposition to “ghost guns” here. And in Georgia, Republicans just pushed through a law that does away with permits for carrying concealed handguns; read that story here.