Judge rules federal ban on guns with removed serial numbers is unconstitutional

A judge has ruled a federal law banning guns that have had their serial numbers removed is unconstitutional.

The law at issue prohibits any person from transporting a gun with the serial number “altered, obliterated, or removed,” across state lines.

It also prohibits them from possessing such a gun if it has ever been transported across state lines.

Serial numbers were first required by the federal Gun Control Act of 1968 to allow guns to be traced. They were adopted to prevent illegal gun sales.

The decision, filed on Oct. 12 written by U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin in Charleston, West Virginia, blocks the law from taking effect.

The decision comes in a criminal case involving an Ohio man, Randy Price, whose gun was found with its serial number removed at a traffic stop in Charleston.

He was charged with illegally possessing a gun without a serial number, and with illegally possessing a gun as a felon. 

Price had previously been convicted of involuntary manslaughter and aggravated robbery.

Goodwin dismissed the former charge but left in place the latter.

Price argued the law banning possession of a gun without a serial number is unconstitutional and cited a landmark ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in June this year, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen. 

The ruling stated the government cannot restrict Americans’ constitutional right to carry firearms in public for self-defense, unless the restriction is “consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”