A stabilizing brace, also known as a pistol brace or an arm brace, is an accessory that helps to enhance stability, increase and reduce recoil for a shooter firing weapon one-handed. (YouTube)
WASHINGTON — The White House announced plans to create an office to protect the Second Amendment rights of gun owners, which will include a focus on ending a federal regulation affecting disabled veterans and other individuals who use pistol braces.
The 2027 budget that President Donald Trump’s administration released last week includes a proposal to fund an office within the civil rights division of the Justice Department dedicated to protecting gun rights.
An early priority of the office is to stop enforcement of a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives regulation that criminally penalizes gun owners who do not register their pistol braces, according to the White House budget request.
Pistol braces are accessories that strap to a user’s forearm for stability and control.
A White House budget request for $1.4 million to establish the office states that it would seek to reverse rules that criminalize gun ownership.
The proposal refers to current criminal penalties of up to 10 years in prison for failing to register “pistol braces that make it possible for disabled veterans to use firearms.”
Under former President Joe Biden, the ATF established a rule for determining whether pistols equipped with stabilizing braces should be considered “short-barreled rifles” and subject to stricter regulation under the National Firearms Act, according to the Duke Center for Firearms Law.
“Stabilizing pistol braces were created and manufactured for the purposes of disabled citizens and veterans to hold, stabilize, aim and fire correctly and safely. Unfortunately, the Biden administration has deemed these braces ‘particularly lethal,’ ” Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., said in June 2023, after the ATF rule took effect.
In June 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas vacated the regulation as “arbitrary and capricious.”
The Justice Department then agreed to drop its appeal and not defend the ATF rule, according to the Firearms Policy Coalition, a nonprofit advocacy organization that focuses on Second Amendment rights.
But the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action warned in March that a recent court filing by the DOJ, under Trump, indicates that “the agency reserves the right to continue bringing felony prosecutions under the NFA for possession of unregistered braced pistols.”
“The upshot is that ATF continues to assert its right to bring felony charges related to the unregistered possession of a [short-barreled rifle] in cases solely based on braced-equipped pistols,” the NRA-ILA stated.
Gun Owners of America also told members in March that the Justice Department continues to enforce the rule.
“End the DOJ’s rogue pistol brace crackdown,” the Gun Owners of America stated on its website.
“A federal court vacated the Biden pistol brace ban. President Trump campaigned on ending it,” the association said.
