On June 13, 2024, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor struck down the ATF’s AR pistol brace regulation, finding that it violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).
The ATF’s pistol brace rule covers stabilizer braces attached to AR pistols, claiming that the brace turns the AR pistol into a short barrel rifle (SBR), and because SBRs are regulated under the National Firearms Act of 1934, the ATF issued the rule on AR pistol braces to thwart what it sees as a way to circumvent SBR regulations.
Breitbart News reported that U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmarik issued a preliminary injunction against the AR pistol brace rule on Nov. 8, 2023.
At the time, Kacsmarik noted that the Court was “not indifferent to the ATF’s concerns about firearms industry manipulation and attempts to circumvent the SBR rules.” But he followed up that acknowledgment with: Blue En (2022) states that the government “simply [positing] This regulation advances important interests.”
On June 13, 2024, Judge O’Connor struck down the entire rule for violating “APA procedural requirements.”
He explained that an interim decision would not be enough. write“Unlawful agency is invalid. Ab Initio Therefore, there is nothing to justify the authorities and therefore it cannot be remanded.”
The Department of Justice may appeal O’Connor’s decision to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Case, Mock v. Garland Brought forward by the Firearms Policy Coalition.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the author and curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly Breitbart News newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment. He has served as a political analyst for Armed American Radio, a pro staffer for Pulsar Night Vision, and the Global Marketing Director for Lone Star Hunts. He was a visiting scholar at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and earned his PhD in Military History. Follow us on Instagram. FollowYou can subscribe to Downrange at breitbart.com/downrange . To contact me directly, please email awrhawkins@breitbart.com
