WASHINGTON — Guy Boyd was hanging out with friends he had known for years in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on the night an accidental gunshot tore into his head. The high schoolers were too young to buy guns legally, but federal and state laws didn't apply to the gun parts kit his best friend bought online and assembled himself to fashion a so-called ghost gun. Somehow, the gun went off and a shot struck Boyd in the eye.
He felt a searing pain in his head and his vision went red. "I remember hearing, 'I love you, bro.' And I said it back, but I didn't know who said it," Boyd said.
He spent nearly a week in the hospital after that night in May 2021. Bullet and bone fragments remain embedded in his brain, causing seizures that make his dream of going to culinary school in New York seem hopelessly out of reach. "I was in good health before, playing football, didn't have any medical problems," said Boyd, now 20.
"And now it's one thing after another." A Biden administration rule passed the following year now blocks teenagers and people who can't pass a background check from buying the kits. But manufacturers and gun-rights groups pushed back in court, and the Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear arguments on whether the regulation will stand.
"The court's conservative majority may come in somewhat skeptical of ATF's reach here, both as a federal agency and as a matter of gun rights," said Timothy Lytton, a professor at Georgia State University College of Law, referring to the Bureau of Al.
