Bondi v. Vanderstok, Docket No. 23-852
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Here’s a twist on how our high court sees a gun law. In Bondi v. Vanderstok, the justices looked at a rule from the agency that enforces our gun laws. They said that some kits you can buy, which come with every piece needed to build a gun, act like real weapons because you can put them together quickly and they’ll fire a bullet. They also ruled that half-finished gun bodies count, if only a bit more work is needed to make them fire. By a 7-to-2 vote, the court reversed a lower court decision that had tossed out this rule.
Summary of the Case
In 2022, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) adopted a rule interpreting the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA) to cover (1) “weapon parts kits … that may readily be completed … to expel a projectile” and (2) “partially complete, disassembled, or nonfunctional” frames or receivers, including “frame or receiver parts kits”. Before ATF could enforce the rule, manufacturers and hobbyists filed pre-enforcement APA challenges, contending that (a) no kit can qualify as a “weapon” under § 921(a)(3)(A), and (b) unfinished frames/receivers fall outside § 921(a)(3)(B). The District Court and, on appeal, the Fifth Circuit agreed and vacated the rule in its entirety. The Government sought certiorari, warning that the Fifth Circuit’s interpretation would eviscerate the GCA’s core provisions and leave regulators unable to trace an exploding rise in “ghost guns.” This Court granted review.
Opinion of the Court
Justice Gorsuch, for seven Justices, held that ATF’s rule is not facially inconsistent with the GCA. On subsection (A), he explained that “artifact nouns” like “weapon” can embrace unfinished items whose intended function is plain. Polymer80’s “Buy Build Shoot” kit—containing all the parts needed to build a semiautomatic pistol in about 20 minutes with common tools—plainly qualifies as a “weapon … readily … converted to expel a projectile.” On subsection (B), he held that “frame” and “receiver” may cover partially complete items. Decades of ATF practice, the GCA’s serialization requirements in § 923(i) for incomplete silencers and destructive devices, and the absence of any dispute about pre-rule enforcement all confirm that some unfinished frames/receivers fall squarely within the statute. The Court rejected litigants’ linguistic-difference arguments, NFA-machinegun fears, and invoked neither the rule of lenity nor avoidance because “text, context, and structure” unambiguously authorize regulation of at least some kits and partial frames. The Fifth Circuit’s judgment was reversed and remanded.
Separate Opinions
Justice Sotomayor (joined by Kagan and Barrett) wrote to emphasize that regulated parties have long known they must comply with the GCA’s licensing, recordkeeping, and serialization requirements and that ATF itself encourages submission of products for classification to avoid confusion.
Justice Kavanaugh concurred to note that ATF must prove “willfulness” to impose criminal penalties under § 924(a)(1)(D), and that background-check violations under § 924(a)(5) require knowledge of the facts constituting the offense—thus guarding against unfair prosecutions.
Justice Jackson concurred to stress that the sole judicial task is to determine whether Congress authorized ATF’s rulemaking under § 926(a), not to rewrite the statute.
Dissenting Opinions
Justice Thomas dissented on text-and-structure grounds. He argued that “frame” and “receiver” in § 921(a)(3)(B) cannot reasonably cover unfinished or nonfunctional components, and that “weapon” in subsection (A) excludes kits that lack a finished frame or receiver. He warned that the majority’s approach could enable ATF to classify semiautomatic AR-15 receivers as machinegun receivers under the NFA.
Justice Alito dissented on review-standard grounds. He challenged the Court’s use of the “facial challenge” test: “No set of circumstances” under which the rule is valid. He argued that respondents never conceded to that demanding standard.
Boundaries of the Gun Control Act
The GCA’s expansive definition of “firearm” in § 921(a)(3) unfolds in four parts:
A. “any weapon … which will or is designed to or may readily be converted to expel a projectile”; B. “the frame or receiver of any such weapon”; C. “any firearm muffler or firearm silencer”; D. “any destructive device.”
Congress omitted “readily … converted” from part (B), signaling that only items already fitting the ordinary meaning of “frame or receiver” qualify—unlike subsections (A), (C), and (D), which expressly reach incomplete or convertible devices. But interpretation must also heed § 923(i)’s serialization mandates for incomplete silencers and destructive devices, ATF’s consistent pre-rule practice of regulating certain unfinished frames/receivers, and ordinary principles of consistent usage across a single statutory scheme. The majority holds that these structural and historical cues authorize regulation of kits and partial components at the outer boundary of the GCA’s reach—while leaving for another day the precise line between regulated and unregulated items.