WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a federal restriction on the sale of parts kits that permit unlicensed gun owners to make firearms at home that cannot be traced by the police. In a 7-2 decision, the justices agreed these homemade weapons, often referred to as “ghost guns,” qualify as firearms under federal law.

The Supreme Court ruling affects ghost guns, the largely untraceable firearms used in a growing number of crimes over the past decade.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld on Wednesday a regulation targeting largely untraceable "ghost guns" imposed by Democratic former President Joe Biden's administration in a crackdown on firearms whose use has proliferated in crimes nationwide,

Wednesday that "ghost guns" can be regulated like other firearms under the 1968 Gun Control Act, upholding a 2022 interpretation of the law by former President Joe Biden's administration. The decision,

Ghost guns are any privately made firearms without the serial numbers that allow police to trace weapons used in crime.

California has accused Austin, Texas-based Defense Distributed of attempting to skirt state rules on ghost guns.

One day after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld federal restrictions on ghost guns, prosecutors in New York are warning 3D-printing companies their “insufficient security measures” are causing a “troubling rise in access to unregulated weaponry.

The decision clears the way for federal authorities to continue restricting the sale of kits for assembling untraceable weapons at home — at least for now.