SCOTUS HEARS CONSEQUENTIAL GUN VIOLENCE CASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
OCTOBER 8, 2024
PRESS CONTACT:
Sarah Harris, [email protected]
Garland v. VanDerStok Asks SCOTUS to Uphold Life-Saving Law Preventing Ghost Guns
WASHINGTON D.C. — Today, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Garland v. VanDerStok, to determine if the government can regulate so-called “ghost guns” by requiring all buyers who purchase these gun assembly kits to submit to background checks and all guns to have serial numbers to help law enforcement track firearms. In April 2022, the Biden administration issued a rule to crack down on ghost guns and change the definition of a firearm under federal law to include unfinished parts.
This is the fourth consequential gun violence prevention case that SCOTUS has taken up since 2022 – resulting in decisions led by the Court’s right-wing majority that struck down New York’s long standing gun safety laws and overturned federal regulations banning bump stocks. Earlier this year, the Court’s longest serving justice, Clarence Thomas, even sided with domestic abusers by voting to strike down legislation preventing abusers with orders of protection against them from obtaining firearms.
Stand Up America’s Director of Media Engagement and former gun violence prevention advocate, Sarah Harris, released the following statement in response to the arguments:
“Ghost guns are deadly, undetectable, and untraceable. After working with survivors of ghost gun shootings for years, I know the devastation these guns have on people, families, and whole communities. If you can build Ikea furniture, then you can build a ghost gun. That’s how easy it is for people to make them, and when they are used to kill or hurt others they aren’t traceable back to the bad actor. We cannot have them readily available.
“While I hope the Supreme Court will act to protect American lives and allow the federal government to close this deadly loophole in our gun laws, recent decisions led by the Court’s right-wing majority leave me skeptical. Just a few months ago, the Supreme Court struck down the ban on bump stocks.
“Americans deserve a Supreme Court that we can be confident will stand up to the gun lobby and protect the American people – the Roberts Court is not it. It is time for Congress to listen to the majority of Americans and implement common-sense reforms to the Supreme Court, including term limits and a binding code of ethics.”
Since 2021, Stand Up America has been a leading group advocating for Supreme Court reform. Stand Up America conducted a national poll earlier this year, which found that an overwhelming majority of voters want Congress to enact 18-year term limits for current and future justices. Stand Up America’s members have driven nearly 900,000 constituent calls and emails to Congress in support of Supreme Court reform legislation, including term limits for current and future justices and a binding code of ethics. In June, Stand Up America launched a Supreme Court Voter campaign, a seven-figure digital campaign aimed at educating and mobilizing voters around the stakes of the Supreme Court for this election.
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About Stand Up America
Stand Up America is a progressive advocacy organization with nearly two million community members across the country. Focused on grassroots advocacy to stand up to corruption and voter suppression and build a more representative democracy, Stand Up America has driven over 1.7 million calls to lawmakers, registered over 100,000 voters, mobilized thousands of protestors, and contacted tens of millions of voters.
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