Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Gun Owners of America (GOA) are seeking a preliminary injunction against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives’ (ATF’s) pistol brace rule.
On February 9, 2023, Paxton and GOA filed their initial suit, at which time Paxon told Breitbart News, “[The pistol brace rule] is yet another attempt by the Biden Administration to create a workaround to the U.S. Constitution and expand gun registration in America. There is absolutely no legal basis for ATF’s haphazard decision to try to change the long-standing classification for stabilizing braces, force registration on Americans, and then throw them in jail for ten years if they don’t quickly comply. This rule is dangerous and unconstitutional, and I’m hopeful that this lawsuit will ensure that it is never allowed to take effect.”
Breitbart News reported that the ATF pistol brace rule places pistol stabilizer braces under the auspices of the National Firearms Act (NFA).
The rule was published in the Federal Register on January 31, 2023, giving owners of said braces 120 days to take one of the five following actions:
• Turn in the entire firearm with the attached “stabilizing brace” to ATF;
• Destroy the whole firearm;
• Convert the short-barreled rifle into a long-barreled rifle;
• Apply to register the weapon under the NFA; or
• Permanently remove and dispose of, or alter, the “stabilizing brace” from the firearm so that it cannot be reattached.
Paxton and GOA are now seeking a preliminary injunction against the rule. In so doing, they claim the ATF has done a 180 degree pivot on stabilizer braces, going from viewing them as “lawful” to viewing them as converting pistols into short-barrel rifles than need to be registered:
Continue reading: Breitbart.com
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