WASHINGTON (CN) — Congressional Republicans chafing against new regulations for pistol stabilizing braces had their hopes dashed Thursday as the Senate voted against their legislative attempt at rolling back such restrictions.
If made law, the GOP resolution — first proposed by Georgia Congressman Andrew Clyde — would have struck down a January rulemaking from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms clamping down on pistol braces. The ATF rule would reclassify what federal law currently considers pistols as short-barreled rifles if the gun is fitted with a stabilizing brace that allows the user to fire from the shoulder.
The Senate canned the proposed bill Thursday on a 50-49 party line vote, a week after the House passed its version of the legislation.
Republican lawmakers have framed the January rulemaking as executive overreach, arguing that it criminalizes law-abiding gun owners and people with physical disabilities who use such devices to safely use firearms.
Under the new regulations, gun owners would need to register such weapons with the federal government under the National Firearms Act or face fines and up to 10 years in prison. Unregistered firearms using a stabilizing brace must either be destroyed, or the brace removed in such a way that it cannot be reattached, the ATF has said.
The pistol designation given to some guns under federal law does not just include handguns but also weapon platforms such as the AR-15, which are legally considered pistols if the gun’s barrel is less than 16 inches long and it does not use recoil-stabilizing attachments such as a stock or vertical foregrip.
Although the inventor of the pistol brace testified before Congress in March that his design is intended for use by individuals with disabilities, Democrats have said that the gun industry has used the technology to sidestep federal law regulating rifles.
“The original design solved a very specific problem for disabled shooter, but the gun industry saw an opening, and it wasn’t about to let that opportunity slip by,” Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy argued on the Senate floor Thursday.
Murphy, a longtime advocate of stricter gun regulations, contended that firearms manufacturers marketed pistol braces as recoil-stabilizing stocks rather than orthotics — and that gun owners were, knowingly or unknowingly, using them to create short-barreled rifles.
“Manufacturers capitalized on widespread ignorance of the law to expand the stabilizing brace, designed for disabled shooters, and selling it as something intended to be fired from the shoulder by non-disabled individuals,” the Connecticut Democrat said.
Murphy added that the ATF rule is not a ban on stabilizing braces but rather updates the law to reflect how such attachments are being used. Gun owners who want to continue using their pistol braces should simply register their firearms with the government and pay the requisite $200 tax, he said.
The ATF has said that pistol braces purely designed as orthotic devices — which don’t allow the user to shoulder the firearm — are exempt from the rulemaking.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer positioned the Republican bill as a step backward on American gun safety in the face of what he called a mass shooting epidemic. “How on Earth can Republicans look at our nation’s gun violence and think the right answer is to make these accessories easier to own?”
Louisiana Republican John Kennedy, who sponsored the Senate-side version of the pistol brace bill, argued that the administration’s rulemaking was not a reasonable restriction on gun ownership rights.
Strapping a stabilizing brace to his arm and holding it up against a printed poster of a handgun fitted with a similar attachment, Kennedy said that the device does not make a gun more lethal.
“Other than stabilizing the pistol, it doesn’t change the pistol in any way,” the Louisiana senator said. “The pistol brace doesn’t change the caliber of the pistol and it doesn’t make it more powerful. It just makes it easier to hold, which is important particularly if you’re handicapped.”
Kennedy pointed to the ATF’s previous acceptance of pistol brace technology — the agency had until January said that such attachments do not turn pistols into short-barreled rifles — and framed the recent about-face as an attempt by the Biden administration to do away with gun ownership.
“They want to start a gun registry for law-abiding Americans,” the lawmaker said. “The ATF rule is just a backdoor way to subject pistols to more smothering regulations.”
Kennedy also decried the rulemaking as unconstitutional, pointing to a conservative legal theory known as major questions doctrine outlined in the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in the case West Virginia v. EPA. Major questions doctrine holds that Congress must approve the actions of federal agencies if they have economic or political significance, which the Louisiana Republican said should render the ATF’s changes moot.
"I’m severely disappointed that the Senate failed to pass my resolution to overturn the ATF’s unconstitutional pistol brace rule," said Representative Clyde, the initial sponsor of the pistol brace legislation, in a statement Thursday.
While the lawmaker blasted the vote, which he called a "shameful betrayal" of Second Amendment rights, he expressed confidence that the measure's success in the House would help the gun lobby challenge the ATF rule in the courts.
"I remain confident that the House sent a strong message to the judicial system by passing my critical legislation with bipartisan support," Clyde said.
The pistol brace rule, scheduled to go into effect this month, has been on hold since May at the behest of the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. The appellate panel is weighing a legal challenge to the ATF's regulations from a coalition of pro-gun lobbying groups.
The National Rifle Association, the preeminent U.S. gun lobbying group, was also not immediately available for comment. On Twitter, however, the organization blasted lawmakers for the decision, singling out Democratic Senators Joe Manchin and Jon Tester, who it said “once again sided with Biden, voting in favor of gun control and against the interests of law-abiding American gun owners.”
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