SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KERO) — On Wednesday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta joined a coalition of 19 other state attorneys general in filing a legal brief. The filing helps continue the defense of a rule that they say helps to protect the public from untraceable ghost guns.
Wednesday's brief, filed in the 5th Circuit Court, supports the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives' appeal of a Texas district court decision.
The Texas lawsuit, filed by individual gun owners and pro-gun groups, challenges the ATF rule meant to ensure that gun buyers in any state pass background checks before they are allowed to purchase weapons-parts kits used to build ghost guns.
The 19 attorneys general say in their brief that the ATF rule is an important step to fighting illegal firearms being trafficked across state borders. Wednesday marks the fifth time Attorney General Bonta has defended the ATF's universal background check rule.
Taking a deeper look at the data around ghost guns in the United States, the ATF says there were 45,240 reports of suspected privately made ghost guns made to law enforcement agencies between 2016 and 2021. Nearly 700 of those privately-made firearms were connected to homicide or attempted homicide investigations.
During that six year period, there was a sharp increase in the number of ghost guns confiscated by law enforcement, from 1,058 in 2016 to 19,344 in 2021.
