Price argued in court that he had a constitutional right to have the firearm, while lawyers for the federal government said the law regarding serial numbers was a 'commercial regulation' that did not violate the Second Amendment. The driver, Randy Price, had also been convicted of a felony. The case heard by Goodwin originated with a traffic stop in Charleston, West Virginia during which police found a gun with the serial number removed. Now, that radical ruling is impacting measures as basic as a requirement that guns have serial numbers. “You may remember that in June the Supreme Court announced a decision dramatically limiting states' ability to protect people from gun violence. 'That radical ruling is impacting measures as basic as a requirement that guns have serial numbers,' said the group. Goodwin's opinion, said Demand Justice, which advocates for Supreme Court reform, demonstrates the far-reaching impact the Bruen ruling could have on gun laws across the country.

In his majority opinion in Bruen, which overturned New York's state law restricting the concealed carry of firearms in public, Thomas wrote that for a gun control law to stand, the federal, state, or local government 'must affirmatively prove that its firearm regulation is part of the historical tradition that delimits the outer bounds of the right to keep and bear arms.' Serial numbers have been required for guns since the passage of the Gun Control Act of 1968 and are intended to prevent the illegal sale of guns and to allowing law enforcement to trace firearms.īut basing his ruling on the majority Supreme Court opinion written by Justice Clarence Thomas in June, Goodwin said Wednesday that requiring serial numbers is not part of the 'historical tradition of firearm regulation' and therefore runs afoul of the Second Amendment. And so the Second Amendment confers a right to remove them from modern weapons.' 'Serial numbers were largely unknown to the Framers, Goodwin wrote. District Judge Joseph Goodwin, who was appointed to the Southern District of West Virginia by former Democratic President Bill Clinton, ruled against a federal law prohibiting people from possessing firearms with serial numbers that have been 'altered, obliterated, or removed.' Bruen that restrictions on firearms must fall within the so-called 'historical tradition' of gun laws. Supreme Court's right wing majority, which ruled this year in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Legal experts said Friday that a federal judge's ruling in West Virginia illustrates the danger posed by the U.S.

Gun value using serial number