Judge Drew B. Tipton of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas has blocked a Biden administration rule which would ban pistol braces. The ban on stabilizing braces was introduced by the administration as a strategy to fight against mass shootings. But the rule has faced heavy backlash from gun rights organizations and certain federal courts across the country. Gun Owners of America (GOA), the Gun Owners Foundation and the State of Texas all filed lawsuits against the rule.
According to Fox:
Tipton’s order follows a ruling by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in a similar case that enjoined ATF from enforcing the rule against plaintiffs including customers of Maxim Defense Industries, a pistol stabilizing-brace manufacturer, and the Firearms Policy Coalition. That decision came days before a deadline for individuals to register their pistol braces with ATF, destroy them or remove the accessories from their weapons. Those who do not comply with the regulation by May 31 will be forced to pay a fee and could face up to 10 years’ imprisonment or $10,000 in fines or both, according to ATF.
The critical difference in the two cases is that a non-private entity, the State of Texas, is party to this lawsuit. Former Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a motion for a preliminary injunction against ATF earlier this month, arguing the pistol-brace rule will inflict compliance costs on Texas police who own previously legal handguns with stabilizing braces and must now expend resources to register those weapons. Tipton agreed and found that Texas established standing to sue ATF and “has sufficiently shown that it will suffer irreparable harm absent a preliminary injunction enjoining the enforcement of the Final Rule.”
ATF defines stabilizing braces as an accessory “that provides a surface area that allows the weapon to be fired from the shoulder, so long as other factors that indicate that the firearm is designed, made, and intended to be fired from the shoulder.”
The lawsuits argue that the brace rule violates the 2nd Amendment by requiring gun owner to register their firearms with government or else become felons.
