The Department of Justice submitted a new firearm regulation Friday aimed at shelling out standards for the use of pistol-stabilizing braces.
Under the rule, the use of stabilizing braces that effectively convert pistols into short-barreled rifles will be governed by existing regulations for rifles in the National Firearms Act. The braces will also be subject to more stringent rules, such as extended wait periods, higher taxes, and registration requirements.
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“Almost a century ago, Congress determined that short-barreled rifles must be subject to heightened requirements. Today’s rule makes clear that firearm manufacturers, dealers, and individuals cannot evade these important public safety protections simply by adding accessories to pistols that transform them into short-barreled rifles,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a press release.
Stabilizing braces are accessories that can extend the length of a gun and can include straps in order to bolster the accuracy of a firearm. The new rule applies to “stabilizing braces to convert pistols into rifles with a barrel of less than 16 inches.”
In April 2021, Garland tasked the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to evaluate the matter while at an event with President Joe Biden about gun violence prevention. Gunmen in Boulder, Colorado, and Dayton, Ohio, used pistols with stabilizing braces in mass shootings around the time of the announcement.
In the 1930s, Congress passed the National Firearms Act to regulate short-barreled rifles because they are “more easily concealable than long-barreled rifles but have more destructive power than traditional handguns,” according to the DOJ.
The new rule will go into effect after it is published in the Federal Register. There will be a 120-day grace period for people and organizations to register existing National Firearms Act short-barreled rifles.
“This rule enhances public safety and prevents people from circumventing the laws Congress passed almost a century ago. In the days of Al Capone, Congress said back then that short-barreled rifles and sawed-off shotguns should be subjected to greater legal requirements than most other guns,” ATF Director Steven Dettelbach contended.
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Some Republicans bristled at the new rule, with West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, a Republican, lambasting the move.
“Biden’s gun-grabber-in-chief, Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Director Steven Dettelbach, has finalized an egregious final rule turning millions of common firearms accessories into ‘short barreled rifles.’ This is a completely nonsensical regulation,” Morrisey decried. “We are taking a very close look at the rule and evaluating our legal options.”
Republicans now have control of the House.
