BATON ROUGE — The United States Supreme Court has upheld a Biden administration rule requiring serial numbers and background checks for online purchases of ghost guns.

Ghost guns are firearms sold in kits that you can assemble at home. They do not come with a serial number, making them untraceable.

Baton Rouge police said they have not seen an increase in the guns being used at crime scenes.

Owner of Jim’s Firearms, Jim McClain said from his experience these guns aren’t widely used, and he doesn’t sell them in his store. 

He said it is not easy to assemble the gun.

“There’s a lot of parts that go into the gun that make it function and to make sure that it’s safe. If it’s the wrong thing, or the wrong alloy, the wrong polymer, it can have a catastrophic failure and it can cause bodily harm, or even death,” said McClain.

McClain said he supports the ruling because serial numbers are important. He said law enforcement uses serial numbers when solving crime scenes, or track it if it's stolen. He said it's just as important for store use.

He said he uses the serial number to locate recalled parts which helps ensure gun safety.

“If there's a problem with a frame. Let's say the polymer mixture is wrong, they can date the serial number and do a recall on them,” he said. 

McClain said it is safer to buy a firearm from your local gun store than purchasing a kit online.