ATF Issues New Rule Declaring Braced Pistols Illegal
Jose Nino
|
According to Gun Owners of America, the ATF recently issued a rule — “Factoring Criteria for Firearms with Attached Stabilizing Braces” — that could potentially see owners of roughly 40 million firearms face criminal charges if they fail to register their braced firearms with the ATF.
GOA’s Legal & Federal Affairs team is currently reviewing the final rule.
Per GOA’s initial analysis of the final rule, gun owners who have braced firearms in their possession “will have 120 days to destroy, reconfigure, register, turn in their firearms to ATF, or face NFA violations which include $250,000 in fines and a hefty prison sentence.”
On top of that, the ATF published a list titled “Commercially available firearms equipped with a stabilizing brace that are short-barreled rifles.”
The ATF asserts that the list is emblematic of how the agency will use the definition of “rifle” for firearms equipped with a stabilizing brace.
GOA noted that even the corporate media, no friends of the Second Amendment, have questioned the “immediate logistics of this final rule.” In addition, GOA observed that it’s a “well-known fact that ATF’s NFA division consistently misses its own performance benchmarks and routinely sees wait times for ATF form approvals and tax stamps in the 300-400 day range.” The no compromise organization stressed that “If 40 million firearms are added to that waitlist, it is logical to assume that gun owners forced to comply with this unconstitutional registration scheme may wait years in limbo.”
In response to the ATF’s arbitrary gun control regulation, GOA is pursuing several efforts to roll back this gun grab. Their first course of action is to work with elected officials in Congress to rescind this regulation by activating the Congressional Review Act.
The Congressional Review Act grants congressman the power to introduce a Joint Resolution of Disapproval to scrap any agency rule or action they consider to be unconstitutional.
If Congress doesn’t bother to hold the ATF accountable, GOA is ready to immediately file a lawsuit against the ATF and fight this regulatory gun-grab in the courts.
Erich Pratt, GOA’s Senior Vice President, opined on the ATF’s move:
This administration continues to find new ways to attack gun owners, and this time their target is brace-equipped firearms that allow persons with disabilities to safely and effectively use pistols. We will continue to work with our industry partners to amplify the disapproving voices in the firearms industry, and the Gun Owners Foundation, our sister legal arm, will be filing suit in the near future.
Aidan Johnston, GOA’s Director of Federal Affairs, shared his opinion:
President Biden just initiated the largest federal gun registration scheme in our nation’s history without even the passage of a new law. GOA is actively working with Congress to pass a resolution blocking this rule under the Congressional Review Act, and we continue to lobby lawmakers to support Rep. Clyde and Sen. Marshall’s Stop Harassing Owners of Rifles Today (SHORT) Act. If President Biden will not sign such legislation, then Congress must defund this rogue agency.
Although GOA is ready to fight the ATF in the courts over its arbitrary regulations on braced pistols, it’s also interested in hamstringing the ATF’s power to regulate short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, and similar kinds of firearms.
To limit the ATF’s power to regulate these kinds of firearms, GOA is targeting the National Firearms Act — an unconstitutional law that gives the ATF the power to make arbitrary regulations. GOA is currently working with Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas and Congressman Andrew Clyde of Georgia to pass the SHORT Act, legislation that would take short-barreled rifles and shotguns from the NFA.
GOA is one of the few pro-Second Amendment organizations that’s willing to stand up against all forms of gun control — legislation and administrative edicts. Its relentless pressure separates it from establishment gun lobbies that just go with the flow and accept the gun control status quo.
To restore the Second Amendment, right-wingers must support no compromise organizations ranging from GOA to National Association for Gun Rights to roll back the gun control regulatory apparatus. Other organizations simply don’t have the chops to assume this task.
Share: