Issue Summary
In an arbitrary move that contradicts the plain meaning of the law, as well as longstanding federal standards, the Department of Justice (DOJ) seeks to redefine many pistols with stabilizing braces as “short-barreled rifles,” by a rule proposed for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) in June 2021.
Owners of these newly redefined guns would be subject to an incredibly stringent set of registration requirements and taxes—as well federal felony convictions for any wrong step—under the National Firearms Act (NFA).
Although pitched as a response to a supposed “epidemic of gun violence,” the rule really belongs to the long-running disarmament agenda that makes law-abiding citizens less safe.
The proposed rule is inconsistent, punitive, and an infringement of the People’s right to choose the arms they need to defend themselves and their families. The Center to Keep and Bear Arms is formally opposing this rulemaking and strongly encouraging the DOJ and ATF to abandon this change in position.
Americans don’t need more federal regulations—they need access to the most effective self-defense tools.
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Reason for Comments
On June 10, 2021, the DOJ issued a proposed rule for the ATF, to reclassify some pistols equipped with stabilizing braces as short-barreled rifles. These weapons would be newly regulated under the NFA, requiring owners to register their firearms with ATF and pay hundreds of dollars in “taxes.” Violations of the NFA can result in prison time, huge fines, and the lifetime loss of gun rights.
Relying on past ATF guidance to the contrary, upwards of 7 million stabilizing braces have been lawfully acquired by millions of peaceable Americans since their introduction in 2012. Stabilizing braces, which attach to the arm, were invented to aid disabled shooters in the use of larger and heavier pistols—allowing them to fire these guns with greater accuracy while lessening the risk of injury to themselves.
Despite physical similarities in some cases, stabilizing braces are not stocks, which attach to a firearm for the express purpose of firing from the shoulder.
Rifles, which are intended to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel length of less than 16 inches are considered short-barreled rifles under the NFA, but the ATF has never formally announced a policy by which a stabilizing brace—even one able to be held against the shoulder—could automatically turn a pistol into an NFA-regulated firearm.
Instead, ATF cleared the original brace design for sale in 2013, saying the item “does not convert that weapon to be fired from the shoulder and would not alter the classification of a pistol.” A 2014 letter from ATF stated that even “using the brace improperly”—in the manner of a shoulder stock— “would not change the classification of the weapon per Federal law.”
In 2017, after a period of ambiguity, ATF confirmed that the “incidental, sporadic, or situational” use of an arm-brace at shoulder level would not put the firearm under NFA regulations, if its brace had not been modified to serve as a stock.
The Biden Administration’s newly proposed rule, however, does not “provide clarity,” as it claims to do. Besides being inappropriately restrictive, the rule establishes confusing guidelines, and is dangerously open-ended in what it could permit ATF to control and prosecute. As part of the rulemaking process, the DOJ and ATF are required to accept public comments on the proposed rule, to review and address these comments, and to make use of them in formulating a final rule. MSLF’s Center to Keep and Bear Arms submitted comments in opposition to the DOJ-ATF rulemaking in September 2021.
