ATF's new rule says guns with some braces are short

A man using a stabilizing brace on an AR-15 pistol killed 10 people at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado. Another used one at a school in Nashville, Tennessee that killed three 9-year-old children and three school staff members. Stabilizing pistol braces also were used in mass shootings in Colorado Springs and in Dayton, Ohio.

Following a series of horrific mass shootings across the nation, the Biden administration called for tighter gun control, stricter regulations on background checks and stiffer penalties on "straw purchases" made on behalf of people who aren't allowed to own guns among other measures President Biden called "just common sense."

In January, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) issued a final rule clarifying the definition of a rifle to mean a firearm with a barrel measuring 16 inches or more designed to be fired from the shoulder, which includes firearms with accessories to allow firing from the shoulder.

Under this rule, guns with pistol braces designed to be fired from the shoulder would now be considered a short-barreled rifle regulated by the National Firearm Act.

Gun owners possessing such firearms are now required to remove the brace, register it and pay a fee, or forfeit or destroy the firearm. The rule is being challenged by multiple lawsuits. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on May 23 temporarily blocked the rule from going into effect, and on May 25 a U.S. District Judge in Texas ordered a preliminary injunction against the ban. Both were limited to apply only to the plaintiffs in each case.

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Stabilizing braces, also known as pistol braces or SIG braces, are accessories that attach to the back of a gun and strap to the forearm, anchoring and lengthening the weapon and allowing the shooter to shoot one-handed more easily.

Alex Bosco invented the pistol brace in 2012 to help a disabled veteran shoot an AR-15 more accurately. He later formed a company, SB Tactical, and partnered with SIG Sauer to market them.

Some pistol braces include a blunter end that allows the firearm to be shouldered, essentially adding a buttstock, resulting in "dangerous and easily concealable weapons" similar to short-barreled rifles that "can cause great damage, and are more likely to be used to commit crimes," according to the Department of Justice. Gun control advocates say pistol braces were a loophole exploited by gunmakers to make weapons more deadly.

Since the 1930s, the National Firearms Act (NFA) has imposed stricter requirements on short-barreled rifles "because they are more easily concealable than long-barreled rifles but have more destructive power than traditional handguns."

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In the Firearms Policy Coalition's lawsuit they argued that the ATF did not have the authority to write new laws without authorization from Congress, a similar argument to one used to block the rapid-fire "bump stock" ban initiated during the Trump administration after a gunman perched in a high-rise hotel using bump stock-equipped weapons massacred dozens of people in Las Vegas in 2017.

Other advocates see it, and similar rules and executive orders restricting firearm ownership or sales, as the first steps in banning firearms sales completely or even government justification to seizing legally-owned firearms.

Gun owners and dealers possessing a pistol with a pistol brace on it that allows the weapon to be fired from the shoulder have the following options:

Pistol braces for disabled shooters that conform to the arm and do not act as a buttstock that can be shouldered like a rifle are not affected by this rule.

According to the ATF's final rule, you must "permanently remove and dispose of, or alter, the ''stabilizing brace’ such that it cannot be reattached."

June 1, 2023. If you register the weapon by May 31 the $200 tax for pistols and rifles with braces will be waived. Weapons registered on June 1 or later will be required to pay the tax.

If you're caught with a weapon using a pistol brace as described above, it's a violation of U.S.C. 5861 and the weapon can be seized and the owner hit with a fine up to $10,000, or imprisonment up to 10 years, or both.

In the rule, the ATF also helpfully points out that lying to an agency of the federal government may also be a violation of 18 U.S.C. 1001, which is punishable by a fine or imprisonment up to five years, or both.

At least three million guns with stabilizing braces are in circulation in the U.S., according to the ATF. Other estimates place the number much higher.

"You told them one thing 10 years ago and now you’re telling them something else," Republican Chairman Jim Jordan said to ATF director Steven Dettelbach in a congressional hearing on the prohibition in April.

Which is true. In 2012, when the ATF was first asked about pistol braces for disabled shooters, the agency concluded that the submitted brace "did not convert that weapon to be fired from the shoulder and would not alter the classification of a pistol or other firearm,’’ and therefore, ‘‘such a firearm would not be subject to NFA controls.’’

But different varieties of braces have been produced since then, including designs that did create weapons with configured as rifles and with barrels of less than 16 inches in length, which the ATF says puts them under the purview of the NFA.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily blocked the Biden administration's rule from going into effect, but the order applied only to the plaintiffs in the case: two gun owners, a company that makes pistols with stabilizing braces, and a gun-rights group. The appeals court did not say whether the rule was blocked for others, including people who buy the guns from the company, Maxim Defense Industries, and members of the Firearms Policy Coalition.

The Associated Press contributed