A rule implemented by the Biden administration requiring registration of handgun stabilizers is likely illegal, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled Tuesday.
According to a report released by the Biden administration, the panel ruled by a 2-1 majority that the Biden administration’s rule was invalid under the Federal Administrative Procedure Act. 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 by the Firearms Policy Coalition. The organization’s lawyer, Cody Wisniewski, called ruling “a huge win for peaceful gun owners across the country.”
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 Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) announced novel regulations that would reverse a decade-old policy allowing the apply of braces. The novel 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 June, the White House announced that Biden would veto any Republican-led congressional bill that would protect Americans’ access to handgun cameras. In a statement, the White House Office of Management and Budget blamed handgun cameras for “mass carnage” in several shootings (via White House):
For decades, federal law has placed 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 precise at range than customary 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 hefty 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 – apply these “braces” on hefty 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 this year’s congressional hearing, Alex Bosco, inventor of the gun stabilizer, explained how the Biden administration’s rule “[circumvented] legislative process.”
“Shortly after taking the oath of office, President Biden decided to reverse the ATF decision from the previous decade regarding stabilization devices. Ordered ATF to treat handguns modified with stabilizing braces as short-barreled rifles subject to NFA [National Firearms Act] control,” Bosco said.
WATCH: Gun brace inventor Alex Bosco testifies at today’s ATF hearing.
“The principle should be seen for what it is: bypassing the legislative process.” pic.twitter.com/WNZqk1s6m6
— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) March 23, 2023
He further explained that this provision turns millions of Americans into criminals.
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 https://t.co/U6od8PTB5T
— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) March 23, 2023
