On Tuesday, a lawsuit was filed in federal court in Texas, on behalf of three veterans by the Milwaukee-based Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, to challenge new restrictions put in place by the ATF.
These restrictions if allowed to remain in effect would turn up to 40 million American into felons if they owned a firearm with a stablizing brace, and failed to register in the appropriate time period. The restrictions would treat guns with stablizing braces like short-barreled rifles, that have been heavily regulated since the 1930s.
The lawsuit argues that millions of people have guns with the braces and use them to make firing “more accurate, and therefore safer.”
“The new rule unlawfully usurps Congressional authority by significantly expanding the definition of ‘rifle’ under federal law and, with it, imposes potential criminal liability on millions of Americans exercising their Second Amendment rights,” the lawsuit argues. A decade ago, the ATF found that the braces did not make guns similar to short-barreled rifles.
The law was announced a few weeks ago but was put on the federal registry this week, which requires a special stamp and a tax for you to remain a law abiding citizen. You would have 120 days to get this stamp that normally takes anywhere from 6 to 18 months.
If this law is allowed to remain in effect, there won’t be any good options for the millions of Americans who own firearms with stabilizing braces or for what this will lead to in the near future for anyone who owns semi-automatic firearms.