Latest news with #GunControlAct
New York Post
09-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
How Trump's US attorney pick can bring justice back to NYC — in 120 days or less
When President Trump named former SEC Chair Jay Clayton as US attorney for the Southern District of New York last month — the most consequential prosecutor's office outside Washington — Sen. Chuck Schumer immediately moved to block the appointment. In withholding his 'blue slip,' the home-state senator's traditional veto power over federal nominees, Schumer proclaimed that Clayton is a threat to the rule of law, likely to use his office's powers as 'weapons to go after [Trump's] perceived enemies.' Trump appointed Clayton anyway, on an interim basis — giving him 120 days to prove the skeptics wrong. Advertisement That's not much in government time, and the clock is ticking: As of Friday, Clayton has just 97 days remaining. But Trump has already set the agenda: Restore law and order, root out corruption and refocus the Justice Department on Americans' safety. With these principles Clayton can transform SDNY into a national model for federal prosecutors — aggressive on violent crime, relentless toward cheats and unapologetic in defending the rule of law. Advertisement Many look to Clayton's background and expect him to focus on white-collar financial crime. But as a longtime New Yorker, Clayton has witnessed the city's surge in violent crime up close. In New York City, felony assault charges against repeat offenders have skyrocketed — up 146.5% over six years, thanks to soft-on-crime Democratic policies at every level of government. Major crime is up 30% since the pandemic. In East Harlem, a gang war led to 21 shootings in just six months. Violent gangs are back and growing in our boroughs. To dismantle the gangs and cartels, Clayton's SDNY should form a dedicated gang and narcotics unit to leverage the full force of federal RICO statutes to prosecute gang leaders — not just their street-level enforcers. With the Drug Enforcement Administration and Department of Homeland Security, SDNY can identify, disrupt and obliterate cartel supply chains before deadly drugs ever hit our streets. Illegal guns should be a top priority. Advertisement Despite New York's toughest-in-the-nation gun laws, firearms continue to pour into the city with deadly efficiency. Between 2017 and 2023, 93% of guns recovered at NYC crime scenes were traced to out-of-state sources — three times the national average. For quick results, Clayton should conduct monthly citywide gun sweeps modeled on the coordinated drug sweeps of the 1990s — then bring federal firearms trafficking charges under the Gun Control Act, seeking mandatory minimum sentences for those caught arming criminals. Advertisement Treat smugglers and suppliers as what they are: accomplices to violence. Above all, SDNY can work to eliminate the repugnant crime of human trafficking from New York City. Last year, a teenager was kidnapped at gunpoint in Times Square and forced into prostitution. In 2024 alone, city agencies identified 843 children as either trafficked or at immediate risk of trafficking. The National Human Trafficking Hotline now reports more trafficking cases in New York than in all but three states. More horrors than accounted for unfold in the shadows. Traffickers must be prosecuted to the full extent of the law — no deals, no leniency. Use every intelligence tool available to track down trafficking rings before another child vanishes into the shadows. Safer streets mean less if we can be robbed by anyone just by going online. Advertisement Last year, Americans lost over $12.5 billion to financial fraud — much of it orchestrated right here. New York is the epicenter for Ponzi schemes, crypto scams, pump-and-dump fraud and sophisticated cyber cons like business email compromise attacks. These aren't victimless crimes, but economic battery. A dedicated task force inside SDNY can ensure that New York City is no safe haven for fraudsters. Advertisement Find those who exploit the elderly and vulnerable and make them face the harshest possible consequences under federal law. Ultimately Clayton's most enduring legacy won't be cases he brings, but the culture he builds. SDNY has long served as just another prestigious line on résumés for the elite. It's time to end the revolving door from Ivy League to clerkship to Big Law and back again. Advertisement To meet this moment, we need prosecutors with grit, judgment and moral clarity in the courtroom. Those who can say, 'I represent the United States of America' — and mean it. Clayton may not win over every critic by summer's end, but his nomination should be about not politics, but the needs of the people of New York. Advertisement And Schumer's procedural hardball might score political points in Washington, but it doesn't make us any safer. This roadmap offers Clayton a path to restore justice at SDNY — and to earn enough public confidence to keep leading it. Orin Snyder is a senior partner in the New York office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher who served as assistant US attorney at the SDNY.
Washington Post
08-04-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Attorney General Pam Bondi begins dismantling Biden-era gun policies
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Monday that she would rescind a Biden-era gun policy that yanked licenses from federally licensed firearm dealers if they intentionally falsified records or sold weapons without running a background check. The policy — known as the 'zero-tolerance' policy — was viewed by conservatives as a punitive rule that stripped law-abiding gun sellers of their licenses for making simple mistakes on forms. But Biden administration officials said the rule was intended to crack down on 'rogue gun dealers.' They said it specifies that officials would only revoke licenses if sellers committed willful violations of the federal Gun Control Act, not for paperwork errors.
Boston Globe
27-03-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Supreme Court ghost busters
But this is a court that has expressed 'I put out on a counter some eggs, some chopped up ham, some chopped up pepper, and onions. Is that a Western omelet?' Advertisement Luckily the seven justices in the majority, in an opinion penned by President Trump appointee Justice Neil Gorsuch, thought Alito's point wasn't all it was cracked up to be. (Sorry.) The court held that the ATF's regulation on ghost guns, on its face, is not inconsistent with the Gun Control Act of 1968. It left open the possibility for future challenges to the regulation as it applies to specific products. But the rule, as enacted by the ATF, need not be struck down as applied to all ghost guns. I agree with the Constitutional Accountability Center's senior appellate counsel Miriam Becker-Cohen, who filed an amicus brief in the case, when she called the court's opinion a 'cogent and straightforward analysis.' But Justices Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented in the case, claiming among other things that the ruling puts the justices in the shoes of regulators and makes new rules that gun manufacturers could not have anticipated. Advertisement Justice Sonia Sotomayor addressed those dissents in a separate concurrence. 'For more than half a century, firearms dealers, manufacturers, and importers have complied with the Gun Control Act's requirements,' Sotomayor wrote. 'They have marked their products with serial numbers, kept records of firearm sales, and conducted background checks for prospective buyers.' 'What is new,' Sotomayor continued, 'is that some manufacturers have sought to circumvent the Act's requirements by selling easy-to-assemble firearm kits and frames, which they claim fall outside the statute's scope.' In short, any confusion was caused by manufacturers' attempts to circumvent the rules, not by the court's decision clarifying them, Sotomayor deduced. I think her assessment is This is an excerpt from , a newsletter about the Supreme Court from columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr. Kimberly Atkins Stohr is a columnist for the Globe. She may be reached at
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Supreme Court Says the Government Can Regulate Ghost Guns
The Supreme Court has upheld the legality of Biden-era restrictions on the distribution of parts and 'kits' used to assemble so-called ghost guns. In a 7-2 ruling on Wednesday, the justices rejected a bid to overturn rules allowing the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to include ghost guns within the scope of their law enforcement directives. Conservative Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas were the two dissenters. The majority opinion, written by Trump-appointed conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch, held that the court had 'no trouble rejecting' the notion that the ATF shouldn't be able to regulate parts of firearms simply because they did not constitute a fully assembled weapon. 'Recent years have witnessed profound changes in how guns are made and sold,' Gorsuch wrote. 'When Congress adopted the [Gun Control Act] in 1968, 'the milling equipment, materials needed, and designs were far too expensive for individuals to make firearms practically or reliably on their own.' With the introduction of new technologies like 3D printing and reinforced polymers, that is no longer true. Today, companies are able to make and sell weapon parts kits that individuals can assemble into functional firearms in their own homes.' 'Imagine a rifle disassembled for storage, transport, or cleaning,' the conservative justice added. 'It may take time to render the rifle useful for combat, but its intended function is clear. And, as a matter of everyday speech, that rifle is a weapon, whether disassembled or combat ready. The GCA embraces, and thus permits ATF to regulate, some weapon parts kits and unfinished frames or receivers, including those we have discussed.' The ruling pertained to an executive policy passed under former President Joe Biden, and the Trump administration could still seek to repeal the policy. The near-unanimous ruling from the court suggests the justices are not as wholly opposed to gun control regulation as some on the right would like. The Justice Department said in a statement Wednesday that it 'will continue to support and defend the Second Amendment rights of all Americans.' Last month, President Trump signed an executive order directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to review any and all gun regulations placed into effect under the Biden administration. Trump and his administration have had a shaky relationship with the judiciary since he took office in January. Federal judges have halted several of his executive orders and other ostensibly unconstitutional actions the administration has taken. Trump has responded with ire, even clamoring for the impeachment of a judge who tried to stop the deportation of Venezuelan migrants without due process. Chief Justice John Roberts responded by publicly rebuking the idea, stating that 'impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision.' Trump has refrained from criticizing the Supreme Court directly since taking office for the second time. There is of course plenty of time left in his term. More from Rolling Stone Supreme Court Chief Justice Slams Trump's Call to Impeach Judge 'There's No Second Amendment Right to Sell Guns to the Cartels' Donald Trump, of All People, Says It 'Should Be Illegal' to Criticize Judges Best of Rolling Stone The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
U.S. Supreme Court upholds Biden regulations on 'ghost gun' kits
March 26 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a Biden administration regulation on so-called ghost guns which allow people to obtain parts via online sellers to build a firearm. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented in the high court's 7-2 decision in its 63-page ruling. "The Gun Control Act embraces, and thus permits ATF to regulate, some weapon parts kits and unfinished frames or receivers, including those we have discussed," Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in a majority opinion. "Ghost guns" are kits made up of prefabricated firearm components that can be sold and assembled in a way that makes them virtually untraceable. According to the U.S. Justice Department, the number of recovered firearms with a missing serial number sharply rose from 2017-2023 with more than 19,000 untraceable weaponry confiscated by federal officials since 2021 alone. "Efforts to trace the ownership of these weapons, the government represents, have proven almost entirely futile," Gorsuch wrote Wednesday. The Biden administration in 2022 cracked down on self-assembly gun kits with new rules which subject them to traditional firearm regs like background checks, verification of age, serial numbers, among other rules. Last year in April, the justices agreed to hear an appeal after a 5-4 ruling in August 2023 temporarily reinstated restrictions imposed by the Biden administration when gun rights advocates sued in a Texas court to block the set of regulations. Arguments revolved around whether or not the weapons met the definition of "firearm" under the federal Gun Control Act. Such a designation would have given the government the power to regulate them as it does with other firearms. The GCA said it applied to "any weapon .. which will or is designed to or may be readily be converted to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive," and likewise covered the "frame or receiver of any such weapon." However, challengers of the rule which did include regular gun owners and gun manufacturers, argued that the 1968 law did not apply to weapon parts kits in what they claimed was government overreach. They contended that the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives does not have the unilateral authority to apply the Gun Control Act to the ghost gun kits. Gorsuch, meanwhile, wrote the Gun Control Act authorizes the ATF bureau to regulate "any weapon (including a starter gun) which will or is designed to or may readily be converted to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive," the Trump-appointed justice said. "A person without any specialized knowledge can convert a starter gun into a working firearm using everyday tools in less than an hour. And measured against that yardstick, the 'Buy Build Shoot' kit can be 'readily converted' into a firearm too, for it requires no more time, effort, expertise, or specialized tools to complete. If the one meets the statutory test, so must the other," Gorsuch concluded. Thomas, writing on behalf of him and the George W. Bush-appointed Alito, in their dissent wrote the statutory terms "frame" and "receiver do not "cover the unfinished frames and receivers contained in weapon-parts kits, and weapon-parts kits themselves do not meet the statutory definition of 'firearm,'" he said. "That should end the case," Thomas continued. "The majority instead blesses the Government's overreach based on a series of errors regarding both the standard of review and the interpretation of the statute." John Feinblatt, the president of Everytown for Gun Safety, said the court's decision was "great news for everyone but the criminals who have adopted untraceable ghost guns as their weapons of choice." "Ghost guns look like regular guns, shoot like regular guns, and kill like regular guns -- so it's only logical that the Supreme Court just affirmed they can also be regulated like regular guns," he said in a statement.
