Tipsheet

ATF Rule to Regulate Pistol Braces Likely Illegal, Federal Appeals Court Rules

Madeline Leesman
Madeline Leesman  |  August 03, 2023 2:30 PM

A rule implemented by the Biden administration meant to require registration of pistol stabilizing braces is likely illegal, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled Tuesday.

A 2-1 panel found that the Biden administration’s rule is invalid under the federal Administrative Procedure Act, according to a report from Reuters. The panel did not block enforcement of the rule, but sent the case back to U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Texas.

The lawsuit was brought forward by the Firearms Policy Coalition. The organization’s lawyer, Cody Wisniewski, called the ruling “a huge win for peaceable gun owners across the nation.”

As Townhall covered, a pistol brace, also known as a stabilizing brace, is a device attached to the rear of a firearm that allows the weapon to be fired one-handed. Once Biden became president, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) announced a new rule that would reverse a decade-long policy that permitted the use of pistol braces. The new rule determined that pistols with a stabilizing brace would be reclassified as “short-barreled rifles” and that existing pistols with braces be registered with the federal government.

In June, the White House announced that Biden would veto any resolution led by congressional Republicans that would protect Americans’ access to pistol braces. In a statement, the White House Office of Management and Budget blamed pistol braces for “mass carnage” at several shootings (via the White House): 

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For decades, Federal law has placed stricter regulations on certain types of firearms, including short-barreled rifles. The rationale is clear: short-barreled rifles are more concealable than long guns, yet more dangerous and accurate at a distance than traditional pistols. For these reasons, they are particularly lethal, which is why Congress has deemed them to be dangerous and unusual weapons subject to strict regulation since 1934. Recently, however, the gun industry has circumvented this longstanding law by manufacturing and selling so-called “stabilizing braces” that convert heavy pistols into shortbarreled rifles. As a result of this industry innovation, in the past few years we have witnessed mass shooters – including those in Dayton, Ohio, and Boulder, Colorado – use these “brace” devices on heavy pistols in order to inflict mass carnage. 

In January 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a final rule – after a 90-day notice and comment period – to address the gun industry’s evasions of Federal law by making explicit that certain firearms equipped with an accessory, component, or other rearward attachment (like a “stabilizing brace”) are short-barreled rifles that are uniquely dangerous and regulated under existing law. Even though Congressional Republicans should take additional action to keep these and other dangerous weapons off our streets, they are instead pushing a resolution to reverse this rule and the progress we have made to enforce existing statutory requirements on these dangerous weapons. 

This Administration has no higher priority than keeping the American people safe, which is jeopardized with a vote in support of a resolution that makes it easier for mass shooters to obtain these deadly weapons. 

If H.J. Res. 44 were presented to the President, he would veto it.

In a congressional hearing this year, Alex Bosco, the inventor of the pistol stabilizing brace, explained how the Biden administration’s rule “[circumvented] the legislative process.” 

“Shortly after swearing in, President Biden decided to reverse the previous decade of ATF decisions on stabilizing braces. He ordered ATF to treat pistols modified with stabilizing braces as short-barreled rifles subject to NFA [National Firearms Act] controls,” Bosco said.

He further explained that the rule turns millions of Americans into felons.