Baltimore's ghost gun lawsuit paused by judge citing US Supreme Court case

BALTIMORE — A Baltimore judge has paused the city’s lawsuit against an Anne Arundel County gun shop — a complaint that alleges the store sold thousands of untraceable “ghost guns” miles from city limits — ahead of trial because of a U.S. Supreme Court case that could determine the legal definition of a firearm.

Baltimore’s case against Hanover Armory LLC had been scheduled to begin in early December, but Circuit Judge Shannon E. Avery froze it last week pending a ruling in VanDerStok v. Garland. The case before the nation’s highest court is the gun industry’s challenge to one of President Joe Biden’s preeminent gun safety measures.

By selling thousands of so-called ghost guns near city limits, Baltimore alleges, Hanover Armory helped flood city streets with untraceable firearms that police went on to confiscate at staggering rates in connection to crimes.

“As long as people who are not legally allowed to possess a firearm — young people, known violent offenders and gun traffickers — have the opportunity to build these tools of death and destruction and violence, we will not be able to build the safer future for Baltimore that we all want,” Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, a Democrat, said when he announced the lawsuit in 2022. “These weapons will continue to be used in crimes that tear loved ones away from their families and traumatize our communities.”

The city estimates Hanover Armory was responsible for selling approximately 85% of the ghost gun kits sold in Maryland from about 2016 until June 2022, when the state banned such products. Over that time, Hanover sold 2,347 such products. The 15 other gun stores for which the city got records sold a combined 415 over the same period, according to court records.

In 2022, Biden’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which regulates the gun industry, also imposed further restrictions on the sale of ghost gun kits. Its new rule said the build-it-at-home gun kits amounted to firearms under the federal Gun Control Act of 1968, meaning dealers had to complete background checks on customers before selling and manufacturers had to mark the products with serial numbers.

David Pucino, legal director and deputy chief counsel at Giffords Law Center, a gun violence prevention organization, said the ATF’s rule sharply reduced sales of ghost gun kits, leading the gun industry to challenge it in courts around the country. The industry won favorable rulings in Texas and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which said the ATF overstepped its authority by making the rule.

A decision from the Supreme Court could take months. Oral arguments took place in October.

“The opinion will say whether that rule can be federal law. The rule says ghost gun parts are firearms,” Pucino, who is not involved in the city’s case, told The Baltimore Sun.

Pucino said the Supreme Court’s ruling could have implications for Baltimore’s lawsuit, which brings claims under state and federal law. Pucino said the claims raised under federal law could be nullified if the high court ruled the ATF’s 2022 rule was improper.

“Baltimore has a strong claim to win under state law no matter what happens with federal law,” Pucino said.

Hanover Armory asked Avery to freeze the case, arguing that a Supreme Court ruling favoring the gun industry could end the case. Lawyers for Hanover also said going to trial against that backdrop would waste resources, potentially rendering a jury’s work “meaningless.”

An attorney for Hanover declined to comment Wednesday.

The city opposed a delay, saying in a court filing its case was poised for trial, “even if the U.S. Supreme Court went so far as to say ‘ghost gun kits can never be firearms.’”

Baltimore’s lawyers wrote that its claims against Hanover included issues of Maryland law.

“The City will put forward evidence that Hanover Armory negligently entrusted its parts and kits in a manner that foreseeably contributed to the harm suffered by the City,” the city’s lawyers wrote. “The city will also put forth evidence that Hanover Armory knowingly violated the Maryland Handgun (Roster) Law as an accomplice.”

The city also said postponing the trial would exacerbate the crisis and delay a resolution. In addition to damages from the trial, the city is seeking to establish a fund to mitigate gun violence caused by ghost guns.

“The City looks forward to having its day in court and remains confident that it will hold Hanover Armory accountable for its contribution to the ghost gun crisis in Baltimore City,” spokesperson Bryan Doherty said on behalf of the city’s law department.

Baltimore’s argument against the gun shop mirrors its ongoing case against opioid distributors. In both lawsuits, the city alleges the companies contributed to a public nuisance that deprived residents of their rights to health and safety. To succeed in the gun case, Baltimore’s lawyers must convince a jury that the shop added to a crisis of violence fueled by untraceable firearms.

If the city wins at trial, as it did in the opioid case, it advances to an “abatement phase” of the litigation with an even larger pool of money on the table.

“The City continues to grapple with the destructive effects of the ghost gun crisis. The Baltimore Police Department still regularly recovers ghost guns from crime scenes,” city attorneys wrote. “Accordingly, one of the City’s primary remedies in this case will be an abatement fund to halt the crisis. Eight more months of waiting will mean eight more months without an adequate remedy for Hanover Armory’s conduct.”

Avery’s order said lawyers on both sides of the case had to file a request for a status conference within 10 days of the Supreme Court’s ruling.

The postponement comes after the city won the right to present its case to a jury, overcoming an effort from Hanover to end the case without a trial. It also follows the city’s settlement with Polymer80 Inc., which was said to be the nation’s largest manufacturer of ghost gun kits, for $1.2 million.

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