NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) - New York Attorney General Letitia James is hoping to block the appeal of the makers of "ghost guns" after a federal judge ruled they are probably firearms and should be regulated as such.
James sued the companies in 2022, claiming their guns are made so that they can easily be converted into untraceable and sold without background checks. Judge Jesse Furman, of the Southern District of New York, has said the case presents an opportunity for federal courts to tackle the issue of whether the retailers have failed to establish reasonable controls required by gun industry members.
The companies argued their products are not weapons, even though one of them stated in a marketing video regarding converting the frame into a firearm: "Even a caveman can do this."
"From these allegations alone, one can 'draw the reasonable inference' that unfinished frames and receivers 'may readily be converted' into functional firearms and, thus, are firearms that should have been serialized and otherwise sold subject to the restrictions imposed by law," his ruling says.
Defendants like Arm or Ally, 80 Percent Arms and Brownells want Furman to certify his order so they can appeal it. They want the Second Circuit to consider whether ghost guns are "firearms" and whether the Protection fo Lawful Commerce in Arms Act requires dismissal of James' complaint.
On April 23, James voiced her opposition.
"Defendants also contend that certification will assure the Second Circuit that it has jurisdiction to hear the PLCAA question in the event it concludes that it lacks appellate jurisdiction over Defendants' noticed appeal under the collateral order doctrine," attorneys for her office wrote.
"This is backwards. Defendants’ choice to place a jurisdictional issue of questionable legal merit before the Second Circuit does not justify granting a motion under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(b), and instead shows why federal courts disfavor piecemeal appeals: they create delay and opportunities for gamesmanship.
"Defendants also assert that certification will ensure that the Second Circuit will be able to decide immunity and other merits issues in one interlocutory appeal instead of having to resolve two interlocutory appeals. But this is a problem entirely of Defendants’ creation and not one that this Court need solve."
The defendants sell unfinished frames, marketed as incomplete, even though all it requires is a "tiny amount of plastic to shave down at the top of the frame and three tiny holes to be drilled on the side," the suit says.
The defendants are not subjected to the investigation and review process required to become a registered Federal Firearms Licensee and do not keep records of their sales.
"Evading these and other requirements is not an accidental byproduct of Defendants' business; it appears to be the point," Furman wrote earlier in the case.
James' lawsuit alleges these ghost guns have caused a public health and safety crisis. She makes 11 claims, including violation of bans on shipping unfinished frames in New York and endangering the public.