The Nevada Supreme Court upheld a 2021 state ban on ghost guns Thursday, overturning a lower-court decision that declared the law unconstitutional for being vague. Ghost guns are guns without serial numbers and are usually assembled by the user.
Justice Lidia S. Stiglich authored the opinion of the court. Stiglich ruled that the law’s definition of “unfinished frame or receiver” was not unconstitutionally vague. Stiglich noted that the court can consult ordinary dictionaries, specialized dictionaries and industry association publications to understand words with technical or special meanings. After consulting several dictionaries and trade definitions, Stiglich concluded that the term unfinished frame or receiver and the words in its definition are “readily ascertainable through their ordinary usage and understandings common to the heavily regulated subject of firearms.”
Additionally, Stiglich found that the statute does not pose a risk of arbitrary enforcement by the government. Stiglich found that the statute is a general intent statute, meaning that a person has a guilty state of mind to be convicted of a criminal offense if they intend to perform a specific act that led to the crime. Stiglich noted that to convict someone under this law:
[T]he State must show that the defendant willfully sold, offered to sell, transferred, possessed, purchased, transported, or received an unfinished frame or receiver and that the defendant knew that the object at issue had the objective characteristics of being intended to be turned into a firearm.
Because the law requires a general intent, Stiglich found no risk of arbitrary enforcement.
In response to the court’s decision, Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford stated:
The ban on ‘ghost guns’ is one of the most impactful pieces of legislation that we have seen come through Carson City. [The] decision … is a win for public safety and creates sensible, practical measures to protect Nevadans from violent crime.
In 2021, the Nevada legislature passed AB 286. The law banned transactions involving incomplete gun frames and receivers and unserialized weapons, with exceptions for antique guns and collectors’ items. That year, a US District Court also upheld the law, ruling that it did not violate the Second Amendment.
This is not the only recent litigation over government regulation of ghost guns. In November 2023, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) lacked authority to adopt a final rule aimed at limiting ghost guns. The Biden administration appealed this decision to the US Supreme Court.
