ATF Rule Effectively Turns Gun Owners Into Felons

[Graybeard]

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/attorney-general-atf-stabilizing-braces/2023/06/08/id/1122898/

On Jan. 13, the attorney general signed a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives ruling, Factoring Criteria for Firearms with Attached "Stabilizing Braces." The rule, which states that pistols or handguns with "stabilizing braces" will now be classified with short-barreled rifles, took effect on Jan. 31, the day it was published in the Federal Register.

This new rule has the effect of turning millions of innocent gun owners into felons — meaning they could face fines and even imprisonment.

These "stabilizing braces" that assist groups such as the elderly or the disabled in properly operating a pistol or handgun are now looked at as unlawful. And if branded as "felons," they would received punishment that could be devastating to their lives.

According to the ATF, compliance options to the rule include removing the "stabilizing brace" from the firearm, surrendering the firearm to an ATF office, or simply destroying the firearm completely.

Any firearms with "stabilizing braces" that are short-barreled rifles had to be registered prior to the May 31 deadline, 120 days after the publication of the rule.

The ATF ruling on pistols with "stabilizing braces" is being challenged by West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and 26 other state attorneys general. On May 25, the group of outraged chief law enforcement officers of the states sent a letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., in hopes of getting the attention of the speaker and members of Congress.

Morrisey pointed out that laws of this nature are ambiguous. The language used extends, he said, the threshold of the rule into categories of guns that should not be illegal.

Morrisey told Newsmax he believes the Biden administration is making things more difficult. Things that were deemed acceptable for a long time, he said, are now put into question with rulings such as this. Morrisey said, "This is a deterrent, making them cost more money."

West Virginia and 26 other states are suing to rectify this move by the Biden administration. Morrisey had hoped that through the Congressional Review Act, the rule might have been be invalidated by a congressional resolution of disapproval by the May 31 deadline.

The attorneys general seeking to overturn the rule see the potential damage this could do to law-abiding citizens who own firearms, and Morrisey sees it as "egregious."

"The administration is transforming rules to make criminals," he said.

Christopher Savino is a rising senior at Rutgers University in New Jersey and a summer intern at Newsmax's Washington, D.C., office.

[Lloyd Smale]

they did get a judge to rule that this cant be enforced till it goes through the courts and they make a ruling on its constitutionality. it would have made me a fellon last week if this judge didnt stop it.

[ironglow]

..Just a bunch of horse apples!  Normally they use "life saving" as an excuse to limit gun rights, but I have not heard of any lives taken in mass shootings, where a stabilizer was used.

  I don't own an AR15.. the Mattel guns just don't appeal to me, but clearly the "stabilizer excuse" is just that, an excuse to try  to limit the 2nd amendment.

[Lloyd Smale]

they claim one was killed but i believe it was on a glock pistol but using that logic makes a hammer or butcher knife much more dangerous because thousands have been killed by them and even an ink pen

..Just a bunch of horse apples!  Normally they use "life saving" as an excuse to limit gun rights, but I have not heard of any lives taken in mass shootings, where a stabilizer was used.

  I don't own an AR15.. the Mattel guns just don't appeal to me, but clearly the "stabilizer excuse" is just that, an excuse to try  to limit the 2nd amendment.