By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
House Republicans, joined by two Democrats, voted Tuesday to block the Biden administration’s pistol arm brace rule announced in January by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Two Republicans defected to oppose the measure, which passed 219-210, as noted by Roll Call. The resolution now goes to the U.S. Senate, where it could face tough opposition. Gun rights groups are already calling on their members and supporters to contact their two U.S. senators in an effort to pass it.
“Senate Democrats have an opportunity to do the right thing,” said Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. “They need to hear from the citizens they represent that the time has come to stand with them and the Constitution. The Biden administration’s efforts to weaponize federal agencies and change the rules affecting millions of Americans must come to a halt.”
Gun Owners of America is urging Senate Democrats “to join Republicans in blocking this rule, and we will do everything in our power to ensure this resolution passes as soon as possible.”
The rule has been temporarily blocked by a May 31 ruling from U.S. District Judge Jane J. Boyle in the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division, who issued a preliminary injunction in a case filed by the Second Amendment Foundation and Firearms Policy Coalition. The National Rifle Association has asked to join that case in order to secure the same relief for its members that the Boyle ruling extended to SAF and FPC members. SAF is CCRKBA’s sister organization.
According to The Hill, the measure was introduced by Georgia Republican Rep. Andrew Clyde. It drew support from Democrat Reps. Mary Peltola (Alaska) and Jared Golden (Maine), while Republicans Thomas Kean, Jr. (New Jersey) and Brian Fitzpatrick (Pennsylvania) bolted to vote “no.”
CCRKBA’s Gottlieb noted Wednesday that the new rule, which took effect June 1, “was a complete reversal of earlier ATF policy which shows how insidious the Biden administration’s efforts to erode the Second Amendment have become.”
“Joe Biden campaigned on a gun prohibition platform,” Gottlieb recalled, “and now his administration is trying to turn millions of law-abiding citizens, including disabled veterans, into criminals just to advance his agenda.”
The rule requires people who have braces mounted to their modern semi-auto pistols to register them, or remove them from the gun. So far, there does not appear to be widespread interest in registration. The new ATF rule now considers pistols fitted with the brace to be the same as short-barreled rifles.
But the braces have been widely adopted by disabled shooters, many of them military veterans. Estimates on the number of braces now in use range in the millions.
According to The Hill, even if the resolution is passed by the Senate, where anti-gun Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) is vehemently opposed. He told reporters the resolution “allows you to conceal what is in effect an assault weapon, and that’s been used in many of the killings.”
Roll Call quoted California Democrat Rep. Ted Lieu, who illustrated what appeared to be a lack of firearms knowledge by asserting the vote to block is “going to now make guns more lethal.”
A similar allegation was reportedly made by anti-gun groups, according to the Associated Press. The AP report said gun control groups “have said the accessories have became (sic) a loophole exploited by gunmakers to make weapons more deadly.”
Pistol braces do no such thing. Guns to which they are attached are no more or less functional than the same guns without such braces. They fire the same ammunition, which has the same ballistics whether it is fired from a braced pistol or one without the attachment.
As noted by the Associated Press, the brace rule is being challenged by several lawsuits, not just from SAF and FPC, but even by several state attorneys general. The argument is that the rule violates the Second Amendment “by requiring millions of people to alter or register their weapons.”
In his Wednesday remarks, Gottlieb observed, “Gun owners are not the enemy. We’re just honest citizens who are tired of being used as scapegoats and treated like criminals, which is what the pistol brace rule change is really all about. Blocking the pistol brace rule will signal the White House and the ATF to stop playing games with the Second Amendment.”
