The justices spent much of the oral argument grappling — in sometimes colorful and humorous terms — with when a partly assembled gun may be considered a firearm under the law and how much work qualifies as “readily converted.” Prelogar, arguing on behalf of the Biden administration, said ghost gun kits were analogous to tennis rackets without the strings or bicycles without pedals. Anyone would classify them as guns, she said, even though they were not fully assembled.
But Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., a conservative, raised questions about what fell under the legal definition of a firearm. At one point, he held up a yellow legal pad and pen and asked: “Is this a grocery list?” He went on to ask whether eggs, chopped ham, peppers and onions could be considered a western omelet.
Prelogar said no, because the ingredients could be used to make other things.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, also a conservative, followed up as the discussion approached the lunch hour: “Would your answer change if you ordered it from HelloFresh and you got a kit, and it was like turkey chili, but all of the ingredients are in the kit?”
Prelogar said that was a better comparison, since the kit is intended to be made into chili.
At another point, Alito noted the “readily converted” language in the Gun Control Act and asked Prelogar how much assembly time for ghost guns would fit within that definition.
“Some of us who are not — who don’t have a lot of mechanical ability have spent hours and hours and hours trying to assemble things that we’ve purchased,” he quipped.
“I’m with you on that one, Justice Alito, as someone who struggles with Ikea furniture,” Prelogar joked in response.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a liberal, seemed to embrace the government’s contention that ghost guns were fit to be regulated under the law, citing ATF letters back to 1978 that used similar language as the new rules. But conservative Justice Clarence Thomas was more skeptical, saying ATF “wasn’t regulating in this way for half a century.”
— Justin Jouvenal in Citing Omelets and Chili, Justices Seem Likely to Uphold Ghost Gun Rules
“…when a partly assembled gun may be considered a firearm under the law and how much work qualifies as “readily converted.”
The GG-3S CNC machine can make the ‘numbered part’ out of solid blocks of aluminum.
There was a video on the Y-Tube years ago that showed an individual making a mold of an AR-15 lower in sand, melding down aluminum cans to pour into it, and then machining out the rest of it.
I’m not going to comment on the…durability(?)…of it but years ago there was ‘AR-15 Mold’ where one mixed & poured their own lower. I think they had issues of the back half snapping where the buffer tube attached. That said, a more viable option would be if one could create a Glock 17/19 pour mold.
Better get your 0% receivers now; they’re already illegal in Cali.
Though I’m sure you could order some bar stock and cut it yourself.