At the end of this month, President Biden’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) will implement a new rule that could effectively turn millions of Americans into criminals overnight. Why is the ATF doing something so extreme? It’s because radical gun control advocates have convinced its leadership to take a more aggressive anti-gun posture, even though the rule contradicts decades of prior ATF precedent.
The rule, “Factoring Criteria for Firearms with Attached ‘Stabilizing Braces,” will reclassify pistols with these accessories as short-barreled rifles, impacting millions of gun owners – many of whom are disabled veterans and seniors who use the brace to shoot safely. These law-abiding citizens will be given three options: 1) place their firearm on a federal registry, 2) surrender or destroy the brace, or 3) face criminal penalties – including prison time.
The House Judiciary Committee recently called in ATF Director Steve Dettelbach for an oversight hearing to examine the ATF’s recent activity, and the pistol brace rule took center stage. The Director failed to articulate a good reason for why the rule will make American communities safer or reduce violence. But this much is clear: for a rule that won’t move the needle on violent crime, it will create a world of hurt for millions of Americans.
At the hearing, Congressman Mike Johnson asked Director Dettelbach, “Does it concern you that for years, law-abiding Americans relied on the ATF’s guidance in purchasing stabilizing braces, and now due to a regulation – not a law passed by Congress, but a regulation – millions of them are suddenly going to become felons?” Dettelbach, unsurprisingly, did not provide any meaningful response. He and his agency are intent upon implementing this rule on top of millions of Americans who will be forced to deal with the negative fallout.
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None of the Biden Administration’s seemingly endless barrage of anti-gun proposals and unconstitutional regulations – from banning “assault weapons” to expanding “gun-free zones” – will do anything but punish responsible gun owners. This pistol brace rule is no different. By requiring registration, surrender, or destruction of the pistol braces, the ATF is not only threatening millions of Americans with up to a decade of jail time, but they are circumventing the Constitution. Make no mistake: the rule is yet another backdoor effort to reduce law-abiding Americans’ access to firearms, opening the door to more anti-Second Amendment policies.
No law was passed by Congress to reclassify firearms with attached pistol braces, and even the ATF agreed for years that they did not qualify as short-barreled rifles, until Director Dettelbach, a Biden appointee, changed course. At the Judiciary hearing, Rep. Thomas Massie summed it up well when he said, “Ten years for owning a piece of plastic that you were told was legal? …This is what offends the sensibilities of Americans, whether they own [pistol braces] or not.”
Americans should be gravely concerned with this kind of abuse of power – an unelected bureaucrat is subverting Congress and the will of the people to impose an unconstitutional regulation impacting millions of responsible gun owners.
Furthermore, Director Dettelbach did little to reassure Judiciary Committee members or the American people that the ATF would responsibly enforce this new rule. We have no idea how many resources the federal government will devote to arresting and prosecuting Americans who own the affected firearms. The worst-case scenarios that could play out should cause anyone to seriously question the value of this rule. Will armed ATF officers show up at the door of a disabled veteran or senior to charge them with a felony and place them under arrest simply for owning an accessory that was perfectly legal for years?
At the very least, the ATF should reverse course and refuse to implement its new pistol brace rule. Director Dettelbach’s recent testimonies, including when he admitted to not being a firearms expert, demonstrated a dearth of evidence-based policymaking and a surplus of ideological drivel. Otherwise, Congress should pass the Congressional Review Act legislation introduced by Reps. Richard Hudson and Andrew Clyde to repeal the unconstitutional rule.
At a fundamental level, the Biden Administration and the ATF should stop wasting resources on proposals that do nothing to stop violent criminals and should instead focus on policies that empower Americans to protect themselves and their communities.
Katie Pointer Baney serves as the Managing Director of Government Affairs for the U.S Concealed Carry Association and is a senior advisor to the USCCA-For Saving Lives Super PAC.
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