90 members of Congress urged the department to withdraw the new guidance.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives has withdrawn new guidance on pistol braces for the AR-15 rifle which would have transferred the popular gun into the short-barreled rifle category. The new rule would have made the AR-15 subject to a $200 fee for required ATF approval for the sale of this firearm, rather than its current classification as a pistol brace that doesn’t fall under the same guidance. Concerns were also raised that the non-registry of current rifles with such braces may have made gun owners guilty of a felony.
Roughly 90 members of Congress signed a letter to the ATF, authored by Representative Richard Hudson of North Carolina, after the bureau published the notice and request for comments for “Objective Factors for Classifying Weapons with ‘Stabilizing Braces’.” The letter expressed the concerns of lawmakers about the language of the proposed regulation. “With ambiguous and malleable subjective criteria such as these, it is obvious the ATF has no interest in clarifying the matter but banning stabilizing braces outright and submitting lawfully purchased firearms and their owners to federal regulation,” the legislators stated.
As the Lord Leads, Pray with Us…
- For the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to faithfully adhere to the protections of Americans in the Constitution.
- For Congress as they seek to guard Americans’ Second Amendment rights.
- That current gun laws would be justly enforced.
Sources: Washington Examiner, ATF.gov
