Federal Ghost Gun Charges: What the March 2025 Supreme Court Ruling Actually Means For You
Welcome to Spodek Law Group. Our goal is to give you the reality of federal ghost gun charges - not the sanitized version you'll find on government websites, not the panic-inducing headlines, but the actual truth about what happens when federal prosecutors decide your unserialized firearm makes you a criminal. Because here's what nobody is telling you: the ghost gun itself often isn't your biggest problem. The charge stacking is.
On March 26, 2025, the Supreme Court issued a 7-2 decision in Bondi v. VanDerStok that changed everything. The Court upheld the ATF's 2022 Frame and Receiver Rule, which means those 80% lowers and weapon parts kits that used to exist in a legal gray area are now firmly under federal jurisdiction. But the personal use exemption still exists. You can still manufacture a firearm for your own use without a serial number - as long as you don't sell or transfer it.
So if personal use is still legal, why are people facing decades in federal prison? Because prosecutors don't charge you with "owning a ghost gun." They charge you with everything else they can find - and then use the ghost gun to multiply those sentences into something catastrophic. That's the trap nobody explains until it's too late.
The Real Trap: How Ghost Guns Multiply Your Charges
Heres the thing most people dont understand about federal firearms prosecution. The ghost gun charge itself might carry 5 years. But the "weapon enhancement" that ghost gun triggers on your OTHER charges - thats where the real time comes from.
Federal prosecutors have a term for this strategy: charge stacking. They dont just charge you with one crime. They charge you with every crime they can plausibly connect to your conduct, and then they use the ghost gun to enhance each of those charges. Its not unusual to see a single defendant facing 8, 10, even 15 separate counts arising from what started as a simple investigation. Each count carries its own sentence. Sentences can run consecutively.
Consider what happens in a federal drug case. Your facing maybe 3-5 years for distribution. Probation is possible. But if investigators find a ghost gun in your home during the search, even if you never touched it during any alleged drug activity, that firearm triggers whats called a "924(c) enhancement." Suddenly your looking at a mandatory consecutive sentence. Not concurrent. Consecutive. That means the gun time gets ADDED to the drug time.
Its not just drugs either. Conspiracy charges, fraud cases, even immigration violations - a ghost gun found anywhere in your orbit becomes prosecutor's favorite tool for turning a manageable case into a nightmare scenario. The untraceability that made ghost guns attractive becomes the prosecution's narrative: "Why would an innocent person need a weapon that cant be traced?"
Think about that. The very feature you thought protected your privacy is now being used to argue you had criminal intent. As Todd Spodek has explained to clients countless times, the ghost gun doesnt need to be connected to the alleged crime. It just needs to exist. Prosecutors will construct a story around its presence that makes you look like someone preparing to evade justice.
And heres were it gets really dangerous: prosecutors can invoke the Armed Career Criminal Act if you have three prior convictions for violent felonies or serious drug offenses. That means a MINIMUM 15-year sentence. Judges have zero discretion. None. Fifteen years mandatory, and thats before any enhancements get stacked on top.
Prohibited Person Status: The 10-Year Trap You Might Already Be In
OK so heres the part that terrifies most clients when they first learn it. Under federal law, your considered a "prohibited person" who cannot legally possess ANY firearm - including ghost guns - if you fall into certain categories. Most people know about felony convictions. But the list is longer then you probably realize.
You become a prohibited person if you have been convicted of any crime punishable by more then one year in prison. Not sentenced to - punishable by. That bar fight from ten years ago where you plead to misdemeanor assault? If the statute allowed for more then twelve months, your prohibited. Forever.
Restraining orders make you prohibited. Domestic violence misdemeanors make you prohibited. If your an unlawful user of controlled substances - and federal law still classifies marijuana as a controlled substance regardless of state legalization - your prohibited. Mental health adjudications, dishonorable military discharge, renouncing citizenship - the list goes on.
Let that sink in. You might already be a prohibited person and not even realize it.
Now imagine your a gun enthusiast who built a ghost gun five years ago. Its sitting in your safe, you've basicly forgotten about it. Then your spouse files for divorce and requests a protective order during the proceedings. Even a temporary protective order makes you a prohibited person. If anyone discovers that ghost gun - through a welfare check, through your spouse mentioning it to police, through your children telling a teacher - your facing federal firearms charges.
In Florida, Carlos Urena spent nearly $8,000 on gun parts online and built more then a dozen ghost guns. He was a convicted felon. The sentence: 87 months. Thats over seven years in federal prison. Not state. Federal. No parole in the federal system. He will serve every single day of that sentence minus minimal good time credits.
What makes the Urena case instructive is how prosecutors characterized his conduct. He wasnt selling these weapons. He wasnt using them in crimes. He was building them as a hobby, something millions of Americans do with conventional firearms. But becuase he was a prohibited person, that hobby became a federal crime. And becuase he built multiple weapons, prosecutors argued he was running an illegal manufacturing operation. The quantity transformed what might have been one charge into a pattern of criminal conduct.
The Brooklyn case is even more stark. A man assembled 13 ghost guns including assault weapons, spending approximately $40,000 on parts and tools. He didnt have a gun license. The sentence: 10 years in state prison. Prosecutors characterized his hobby - and thats all it was, a hobby - as preparation for an illegal weapons trafficking operation. The money he spent became evidence of "criminal enterprise" intent.
And then theres Ricky Crenshaw of Maryland. Prohibited person due to a 1999 assault conviction. Ghost gun used in a shooting. The sentence: life. A 25-year-old misdemeanor combined with a ghost gun combined with a violent incident equaled a life sentence. Thats the cascade effect in its most extreme form.
How They Find Your Ghost Gun: The Discovery Problem
Nobody wakes up thinking "today's the day federal agents search my home." But heres the reality of how most ghost gun cases actualy begin.
Traffic stops. A broken taillight, a rolling stop, expired registration. Officer approaches your vehicle and sees a firearm. Maybe its on the seat. Maybe its in the glovebox you opened to get your registration. Maybe you were reaching for something and your jacket shifted. Once its visible, probable cause exists to search. And once they search, they run your name.
That bar fight from 2015? It comes up. Your now a prohibited person in possession. What started as a fix-it ticket is now a federal felony. We see this pattern constantly at Spodek Law Group.
Domestic disputes are another common entry point. Neighbors call police because of yelling. Officers arrive and do a "welfare check." During that check, they observe a firearm in plain view. Even if no one is arrested for domestic violence, the firearm observation goes into a report. If theres any history of protective orders, any pending custody dispute, any allegation that triggers prohibited person status - federal prosecutors start getting interested.
Probation and parole visits are particulary dangerous. Your probation officer has broad authority to search your residence. They dont need a warrant. They dont need probable cause. If your on supervision for ANY offense and they find a ghost gun, your going back to court - and this time its federal court.
Heres what most people dont realize: federal prosecutors dont take every ghost gun case. They cherry-pick. They look for cases where the defendant has priors, where theres drug involvement, where they can stack charges and get a significant sentence. If your case has those elements, the feds want it. If your a first-time offender with a clean record who made one ghost gun for personal use, you might stay in state court. Might.
But you dont get to choose. They choose. And by the time you find out which court your in, the charging decision has already been made based on factors you probly never considered.
The "Good Faith" Defense: What Building Before August 2022 Actualy Means
Now heres something that should give you some hope if your in this situation. The ATF Frame and Receiver Rule went into effect in August 2022. Before that date, the legal status of 80% lowers and weapon parts kits was genuinly ambiguous. This creates what defense attorneys call a "good faith reliance" defense.
If you purchased parts, assembled a firearm, or acquired a completed ghost gun before the regulation date, you have an argument that you reasonably believed your conduct was legal. Theres no retroactive serialization requirement for personal use. The burden shifts to prosecutors to prove you assembled or acquired the weapon AFTER August 2022, and proving timing isnt always easy for them.
But wait - theres complexity here that most articles wont tell you about.
The Supreme Court decision was written by Justice Neil Gorsuch. Yes, the conservative justice. The 7-2 majority included both liberal and conservative justices agreeing that the ATF rule is consistent with the Gun Control Act. Only Justices Thomas and Alito dissented. This wasnt a partisan decision.
Whats interesting is whats happening now under the Trump administration. The DOJ has signaled it may not vigorously enforce the Biden-era rule in all circumstances. They've already indicated they wont enforce against certain manufacturers products. This creates uncertainty - and uncertainty sometimes works in defendants favor.
Defense strategies that are working in current cases include challenging the constitutionality of the search that discovered the ghost gun. Many ghost gun cases start with searches that have vulnerabilities - traffic stops that lasted too long, consent that was coerced, warrants that were overbroad. If the search gets suppressed, the gun evidence goes with it.
Another strategy involves challenging the government's timeline. When exactly was this firearm assembled? Can prosecutors prove it was after August 2022? If you bought parts at different times, if you did the machining over weekends across several months, if you cant remember exactly when you finished - that ambiguity can create reasonable doubt about whether the rule even applies to your weapon.
At Spodek Law Group, we've seen cases dismissed becuase prosecutors couldnt establish the timing. We've seen charges reduced becuase the search had problems. The situation isnt hopeless - but you need to know what defenses actualy exist.
What NOT to Do: Mistakes That Destroy Federal Ghost Gun Cases
Let me be direct with you about the errors that turn winnable cases into disasters.
First and most critical: do not talk to investigators without your attorney present. This applies even if they seem friendly, even if they say your just helping with an investigation about someone else, even if they promise things will go easier if you cooperate. Every word you say becomes evidence. Federal agents are trained to build rapport and extract statements. Your trained in whatever your job is. Its not a fair conversation.
Dont post about your case on social media. Dont post about guns, dont post about your legal situation, dont post cryptic messages that could be interpreted as referring to your case. Prosecutors monitor social media. Defense attorneys have watched helplessly as clients destroyed their cases with Facebook posts.
Dont try to dispose of evidence. If you've been contacted by investigators and you start getting rid of firearms, that becomes obstruction. Obstruction is a separate federal charge with its own sentence. Now your facing the original charges PLUS obstruction. You've made everything worse.
Dont ignore court dates or attorney calls. Missing court is a warrant. Once theres a warrant, your getting arrested - and arrested defendants negotiate from a much weaker position then defendants who surrendered voluntarily.
Dont assume your case is like someone elses. The client who tells you "my cousin got probation for the same thing" doesnt know what charges his cousin actualy faced, what his criminal history was, what jurisdiction he was in, or what plea deal was negotiated. Federal sentencing depends on specific guidelines calculations. Your case is your case.
And please - dont take legal advice from gun forums or YouTube comments. The amount of misinformation online about ghost guns is staggering. People confidently explain laws they dont understand, cite cases that dont apply, and recommend strategies that will destroy your defense. If your facing federal charges, you need an attorney who handles federal firearms cases. Not general criminal defense. Federal firearms specifically.
The 97% Reality: Why Your Next Move Matters More Then You Think
Heres the uncomfortable truth about federal criminal defense. According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, 97% of federal defendants plead guilty. Only 3% go to trial. Those numbers havent changed significantly in years.
What does this mean for you? It means if your facing federal ghost gun charges, the question probably isnt "will I beat this at trial." The question is "what can my attorney negotiate, and how quickly can we start that process."
The clock started when you became aware of the investigation. Every day that passes is a day prosecutors are building their case stronger. Every day is a day your not providing your attorney with information that could help your defense. Every day the enhancement calculations potentially get worse if new evidence emerges.
Federal prosecutors have years to prepare. They had access to wiretaps, informants, and surveillance before you even knew they were watching. They've already decided to charge you - which means theyve already evaluated their case and concluded its strong enough to take to a grand jury. They had time. You have days.
Sound unfair? It is. The federal system is designed to generate guilty pleas. The sentencing guidelines make trial a massive risk - if you go to trial and lose, you dont get credit for "acceptance of responsibility," and your sentence can be significantly higher. The system incentivizes pleading guilty, and 97% of defendants do exactly that.
But within that reality, there are tremendous differences in outcomes. The difference between pleading to a 10-year sentence and pleading to a 5-year sentence is five years of your life. The difference between federal prison and probation is everything. Thats what skilled federal defense counsel negotiates.
Time Asymmetry: They Had Years, You Have Days
Theres a concept in federal criminal defense that clients rarely understand until its explained to them: time asymmetry. Federal prosecutors dont wake up one morning and decide to charge you. Theyve been building your case for months, sometimes years. They've had grand jury subpoenas, wiretaps, informant testimony, financial records. Theyve already evaluated whether the evidence is strong enough. Theyve already decided to prosecute.
You find out about all of this on the day agents show up at your door. Or when you get a target letter. Or when your arrested.
They had years to prepare. You have days - maybe weeks - to respond. Thats the asymmetry. Thats why immediate action matters so much. Every day you wait is a day they continue building while you remain in the dark.
According to Department of Justice statistics, the average federal investigation lasts 18 months before charges are filed. Eighteen months of evidence gathering before the defendant even knows theyre under investigation. By the time you find out, the case against you is largely complete. Your job isnt to undo what theyve built - its to find the weaknesses in what they've assembled and exploit them.
This is why choosing the right attorney immediately matters so much. An experienced federal defense attorney knows where to look for problems in the government's case. They know what motions to file, what discovery to demand, what witnesses to interview. They know how to negotiate with prosecutors who hold most of the cards. And they know that in 97% of cases, negotiation - not trial - is where outcomes get determined.
What Happens Now
If your reading this article, you probly fit into one of two categories. Either your worried about a ghost gun you own and what might happen, or your already facing charges and looking for understanding.
For the first group: consider whether you might be a prohibited person. Consider what would happen if that firearm was discovered during an unrelated encounter with law enforcement. Consider whether the potential consequences are worth the current situation.
For the second group: time matters. The prosecutors building their case already. The charging decision may have been made. What you do in the next 48 hours shapes the next decade of your life.
Call Spodek Law Group at 212-300-5196. This initial conversation costs you nothing. Not making it could cost you everything.
The system isnt fair. The enhancement statutes are brutal. The plea rate shows how few people successfully fight these charges at trial. But within that difficult reality, outcomes vary dramatically based on who's representing you and how quickly you act.
That ghost gun in your possession - it might be perfectly legal under the personal use exemption. Or it might be the accelerant that turns a manageable situation into a federal nightmare. The difference often comes down to circumstances you cant control and decisions you can.
Make the right decision now. 212-300-5196.
