Attorney General Paxton, along with a coalition of other plaintiffs, is suing the Biden Administration over a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (“ATF”) rule targeting pistol owners who use stabilizing braces. Attorney General Paxton is partnering with Gun Owners of America in this lawsuit.
For years, Americans have widely used stabilizing braces when exercising their Second Amendment rights for numerous purposes, with millions sold throughout the country. Braces can reduce recoil, assist people with disabilities, prevent injury, and overall help individuals operate weapons more safely and accurately.
The Biden Administration is now targeting law-abiding Americans with burdensome registration requirements by defining a pistol with a stabilizing brace as a “short-barreled rifle.” This change in classification would require that individuals register their firearm ownership with the federal government or risk up to ten years in prison if they fail to comply with the regulation.
This infringement on Second Amendment rights is fundamentally unconstitutional, as well as unlawful for many other reasons. The new rule is arbitrary and capricious, was adopted in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, and the federal entity instituting the rule, ATF, lacks the statutory authority to define handguns with stabilizing braces as short-barreled rifles.
“This is yet another attempt by the Biden Administration to create a workaround to the U.S. Constitution and expand gun registration in America,” said Attorney General Paxton. “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.”
To read the full lawsuit, click here.