A federal appeals court issued a decision on Aug. 1 finding that a Biden administration rule requiring that stabilizing gun braces be registered, along with a fee paid for the registration, will most likely be struck down on legal challenges and extended for 60 days an order allowing gun owners and dealers to sell and buy guns without adhering to the rule.
Two Texas gun owners, a dealer, and gun rights organization had filed a lawsuit against the DOJ contesting the legality of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’s (ATF) stabilizing gun brace rule.
Stabilizing braces attach to the back of a handgun, lengthening it while strapping to the arm. Advocates say the attachments make handguns safer and more accurate. Gun safety groups say they can be used to, in effect, lengthen a concealable handgun, making it more lethal. They point to mass shootings in which such braces were used.
The decision of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Louisiana sends the case back to a federal judge in Texas who will evaluate whether to extend the block on the rule across the nation.
In response to the lawsuit challenging the rule, a federal judge in Texas had earlier decided not to block the regulations from being enforced. However, in May, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a temporary hold on the block being activated.
Following the 5th Circuit 2-1 ruling, the majority said that the plaintiffs in the lawsuit stood a good chance to win their case because the DOJ did not abide by the federal Administrative Procedure Act in
“There is a need for consistent application of the law, and this court may not have all the required facts,” Judge Jerry Smith wrote, noting that multiple other courts have issued orders against the federal registration rule since May and that it is uncertain how many people are now covered by such rulings.
NRA CEO and Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre issued a statement on the 5th Circuit decision.,
“The NRA fought this unlawful rule at every level – first as a supporter of a major case and then as a plaintiff at the tip of the spear,” said Mr. LaPierre. “This ruling sends a powerful message to NRA members and law-abiding gun owners everywhere: freedom will be preserved.”
William Brewer III, counsel to the NRA, added: “The Fifth Circuit’s ruling leaves little doubt that the NRA will achieve success on behalf of its members and prevail in protecting them from this unlawful overreach. All the gun rights groups who stood up to this attack on freedom should be commended.”
A Response to Mass Shootings
The stabilizing brace regulation is one of several gun-control proposals that President Biden put forth in 2021 following in March of that year, a gunman shooting an AR-556 pistol outfitted with a stabilizing brace, shot and killed 10 people in a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado.Guns with stabilizing braces were also used in the 2019 shooting near the entrance of a bar in Dayton, Ohio, that left nine dead, and the 2023 Covenant School shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, in which six died.
On January 13, 2023, Attorney General Merrick, who heads up the Department of Justice (DOJ), and Steve Dettelbach, the director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), an agency under the DOJ, announced new stabilizing gun brace regulations.
“Almost a century ago, Congress determined that short-barreled rifles must be subject to stricter legal requirements,” Garland said during a call with reporters on the day he announced the rule. “Policy makers understood then what we know is still true today. Short-barreled rifles present a deadly combination: They are easier to conceal than rifles, but they are more powerful and lethal than pistols.”
The regulations went into effect on June 1.
In response to a request from The Epoch Times, the DOJ said it declined to comment on the 5th Circuit ruling.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
