Justice Samuel Alito wrecked the government’s defense of the ATF “ghost gun” rule during oral arguments Tuesday by asking if eggs and peppers are an omelet.
Breitbart News reported that the case is Garland v. VanDerStok, and it is focused on ATF Final Rule 2021-05F. A central part of this rule was redefining what the word “firearm” means so as to designate “partially completed pistol frames” and other gun parts as “firearms.”
Justice Alito asked about “components” and the way they are defined in relation to a “weapon.”
He asked, “Here is a blank pad and a pen. Is this a grocery list?” The government answered no, citing numerous uses for the pad and pen.
He followed up by asking, “If I put on a counter some eggs, some chopped up ham, some chopped up pepper and onions, is that a western omelet?” The government again answered no, again citing “well-known other uses” for the eggs, ham, etc.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett followed Alito by asking if the omelet analogy would change if the ingredients were purchased from Hello Fresh. The government answered in the affirmative.
Justice Neil Gorsuch followed up, asking about the scope of “ordinary meaning,” as applied to “every noun” used by Congress or the U.S. Code — if it can be used to see Alito’s pad and pencil as a grocery list. Therefore, Gorsuch suggests there “has got to be a line that makes [the government’s] theory the case.”
Gorsuch noted that as recently as 2021 “the government represented that an unfinished frame or receiver does not meet the statutory definition of a firearm.”
. That doesn’t fit the narrative which is let’s put people into jail who we think might commit a crime with some parts they have because they are firearm related parts and anything firearm related makes us pee our pants and suck our thumbs. 
