On Monday, the White House announced that President Joe Biden would veto a Republican-led measure that would protect Americans’ access to handgun cameras.
The measure, introduced by GOP Rep. Andrew Clyde (GA), would halt a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) rule announced earlier this year that introduced regulations for handgun stabilizing harnesses.
As Townhall mentioned, a pistol brace, also called a stabilizing brace, is a device attached to the back of a firearm that allows one-handed firing. When Biden became president, the ATF announced a fresh rule that would reverse a decade-old policy allowing the utilize of braces. The fresh regulations stipulated that guns with a stabilizing bracket would be reclassified as “short-barreled rifles” and that existing guns with stabilizers would be registered with the federal government.
In a statement, the White House Office of Management and Budget said it disapproves of H.J. Res. 44 and blamed pistol cameras for the “mass carnage” during several shootings (via White House):
For decades, federal law has imposed stricter regulations on certain types of firearms, including short-barreled rifles. The reason is clear: short-barreled rifles are easier to conceal than long guns, and at the same time more threatening and more true at range than time-honored pistols. For these reasons, they are particularly deadly and why Congress has designated them as threatening and unusual weapons that have been strictly regulated since 1934. Recently, however, the gun industry has circumvented this long-standing law by producing and selling so-called “stabilizing braces” that transform massive guns into short-barreled rifles. As a result of this industry innovation, over the last few years we have seen mass shooters – including those in Dayton, Ohio and Boulder, Colorado – utilize these “stiffening” devices on massive handguns 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 evasion of federal law, expressly stating that certain firearms equipped with an accessory, component or other means rear attachments (like a “stiffening brace”) are short-barreled rifles that are extremely threatening and are subject to applicable law. While Republicans in Congress should take additional action to keep these and other threatening weapons off our streets, they are instead pushing a resolution to reverse this rule and the progress we have made in enforcing existing statutory requirements for these threatening weapons.
This administration has no higher priority than keeping Americans unthreatening, which is jeopardized by voting for a resolution that makes it easier for mass shooters to obtain these deadly weapons.
If H.J. Res. 44 were presented to the President, who vetoed them.
During a congressional hearing earlier this year, Republican Bryon Donalds (R-FL) pointed out that the fresh ATF regulations, which bypassed the legislative process entirely, essentially turned 10 million Americans into criminals.
“Do you think it’s right that the ATF is operating outside the legislative branch of Congress, criminalizing 10 million Americans who are currently law-abiding citizens?” Donalds said, pointing out that the ATF found that stabilization braces were legal until recently.
🔥🔥🔥@RepDonaldsPress GRILLs Democrat Witness on Biden’s ATF acting unilaterally to turn millions of law-abiding citizens into criminals overnight. pic.twitter.com/7vWT5iXNyk
— Supervisory Committee (@GOPoversight) March 23, 2023
During the hearing, Republican Jim Jordan (R-OH) indicated that the primary issue behind the rule change was the lack of a bill in Congress regarding the change. Jordan said he has heard that as many as 40 million Americans may own the product.
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 https://t.co/U6od8PTB5T
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) March 23, 2023
