U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor has invalidated a 2022 rule implemented during the Biden administration that regulated so-called “ghost guns”—firearms assembled from disassembled components sold without serial numbers. The ruling, issued this week, declared the regulation unconstitutional under the Second Amendment and violated the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.

O’Connor, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, stated the rule conflicted with the nation’s “historical tradition” of personal gunsmithing and self-manufacture. He argued that mandating self-assembled firearms be treated like other guns created “ambiguous and far-reaching regulations” that inhibited home gunmaking while restricting access to component parts. The judge also found the regulation unconstitutionally vague in violation of due process.

The Biden-era rule targeted ghost guns, which critics claim allow citizens to circumvent bureaucratic hurdles for firearm ownership. Federal data shows the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) received 620,000 trace requests in 2022, with only 19,000 identified as ghost guns. Gun rights advocates emphasized that such firearms account for a minimal fraction of recovered weapons at crime scenes nationwide, contradicting claims by federal authorities about their role in violent crime surges.

The ruling follows a 2023 Supreme Court decision that narrowly upheld the regulation’s statutory authority but did not address its constitutional validity. O’Connor directly confronted the rule’s core—a challenge to the Founding Fathers’ vision of firearm ownership as fundamental protection against tyranny and foreign invasion. His decision marks a clear shift in judicial interpretation, affirming that the Second Amendment safeguards critical rights for American citizens without unnecessary governmental interference.