Texas Lawsuit Could Freeze Biden’s Attempt To Turn Pistol Brace Owners Into Felons, With New Injunction Request; GOA Files For A Preliminary Injunction Over Braced Pistols

Texas Lawsuit Could Freeze Biden’s Attempt To Turn Pistol Brace Owners Into Felons, With New Injunction Request:

Paxton argues the regulation unconstitutionally taxes citizens for exercising their Second Amendment rights, is arbitrary and capricious, and is unconstitutionally vague.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton just filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to prevent the Biden administration from enforcing its ban on pistol braces — a ban the attorney general and his fellow plaintiffs claim violates the Second Amendment.

The Biden administration issued a new regulation on Jan. 31 declaring guns with stabilizing pistol braces “short-barreled rifles,” suddenly subjecting them to the stringent mandates of the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA). Among other things, that federal statute regulates machine guns, silencers, and short-barrel shotguns or rifles, but does not govern pistols.

By statute, a rifle is defined as “a weapon designed or redesigned, made or remade, and intended to be fired from the shoulder” and made to fire “a single projectile” with “each single pull of the trigger.” The NFA doesn’t regulate all rifles, however, but only “short” rifles — those defined as having a total length of 26 inches or less, or a barrel of 16 inches or less.

Neither does the NFA regulate pistols, which are defined separately as firearms designed and intended to fire a bullet “when held in one hand,” and having “a short stock designed to be gripped by one hand.”

Beginning in about 2012, firearms manufacturers began offering stabilizing braces for pistols. In general, the pistol would fit into the stabilizing brace with the brace connected to a shooter’s forearm to provide additional support. Over the next decade, manufacturers expanded the offerings of stabilizing braces and also modified pistol designs to provide for the easy attachment of an accessory brace.

When first introduced into the market more than a decade ago, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms determined stabilizing braces did not convert pistols into short-barreled rifles subject to regulation under the NFA. As new designs developed over the years, the ATF provided that consistent guidance, while also indicating that if the brace constituted a “stock” — left undefined by the ATF — to convert the weapon to one designed to be fired from the shoulder, it could qualify under the NFA as a short-barreled rifle.

The Biden administration changed course, however, issuing a final regulation in January 2023 that purported to redefine “rifle” as “a weapon that is equipped with an accessory component, or other rearward attachment (e.g., a ‘stabilizing brace’) that provides surface area that allows the weapon to be fired from the shoulder, provided other factors,” as further defined in the regulation, “indicate that the weapon is designed, made, and intended to be fired from the shoulder.” —>READ MORE HERE

GOA Files For A Preliminary Injunction Over Braced Pistols:

Gun Owners of America has filed for a preliminary injunction in the Southern District of Texas federal court against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) pistol brace rule0

Under the direction of the Biden Administration, the ATF posted its new rule about the use of pistol stabilizing devices on firearms to the Federal Register last January. The rule would turn most braces-equipped guns into short-barreled rifles (SBR). These guns would be subjected to the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA).

The request for a preliminary injunction comes on the heels of multiple other lawsuits around the country challenging the ATF’s attempt to reclassify pistols with stabilizing devices. Since 2012 the ATF has given the green light to companies to produce these devices and for American gun owners to spend millions of dollars purchasing braces.

Estimates vary, but there are over three million braces in the hands of gun owners. If these gun owners do not register their pistols with the ATF, then the ATF would take “an enforcement action” against the owners which could see them going to federal prison for ten years and facing a $250,000 fine for each brace. These law-abiding citizens would become felons overnight.

The motion for the preliminary injunction highlights that the ATF caused the problem by green lighting the pistol braces initially before backtracking after pressure from anti-gun groups and the White House. It also lays down a history of the ATF “changing its mind” on things like bump stocks and pistol frames. —>READ MORE HERE

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