Over half the country has piled on to legal challenges against the federal government's move to consider large-format pistols with stabilizing braces as NFA-regulated short-barrel rifles.
Joining at least two lawsuits already underway against the ATF and the U.S. Department of Justice over the recent rule change are two more lawsuits announced this week.
On Thursday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, allied with Gun Owners of America and the Gun Owners Foundation, filed suit against the feds in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. The 152-page suit is sweeping in its scope, and challenges the ATF's rule change on numerous constitutional grounds, even pointing out that SBRs in any context are only regulated as a vestige of a failed plan to ban all handguns back in 1934.
"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 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."
This came the same day that 25 states led by West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley, with the Firearms Regulatory Accountability Coalition as lead plaintiff and joined by the NRA, brace maker SB Tactical, wounded veteran Richard Cicero, and gunmaker B&T USA, filed a similar suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota.
"ATF repeatedly issued letter rulings assuring manufacturers and the public that attaching a stabilizing brace would not alter the statutory or regulatory classification of a pistol or other firearm," explains the 46-page suit. "As a result, millions of Americans have for years lawfully purchased stabilizing braces and pistols equipped with stabilizing braces from authorized, legitimate manufacturers with ATF’s full knowledge and express approval."
Other plaintiffs in the FRAC suit besides West Virginia and North Dakota include Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming.
"We feel that there is a positive trend towards regulatory accountability in the Courts, and we are confident that the Courts will continue to hold the ATF accountable for their pattern of regulatory overreach and ever-shifting positions," said Travis White, FRAC's CEO.
Estimates of those impacted by the rule range from an extreme low of 1.4 million individuals affected (the ATF's figure) to as many as 40 million (data from the government's non-partisan Congressional Research Services). The ATF anticipates the cost to implement the rule is $266.9 million.
Banner image: Diamondback DB15 pistol with a Gearhead Works Tailhook stabilizing brace. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)
