Matt Gaetz introduces bill to abolish ATF after new rules on pistol braces
Ryan King
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Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is proposing legislation to scrap the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives following new rules on pistol-stabilizing braces.
Last week, the Justice Department announced that pistol-stabilizing braces that effectively convert pistols into short-barreled rifles will be covered by existing regulations for rifles in the National Firearms Act. Gaetz cited the stricter rules on pistol braces and iterated his long-standing gripes with the ATF in an announcement for his bill.
DOJ TO IMPOSE HARSHER RULES FOR PISTOL-STABILIZING BRACES
“House Republicans have the ATF in our crosshairs. The continued existence of the ATF is increasingly unwarranted based on their repeated actions to convert law-abiding citizens into felons. They must be stopped. My bill today would abolish the ATF once and for all,” Gaetz said in a statement.
The ATF oversees government enforcement of firearms laws and is set to be tasked with enacting the new regulatory regime on pistol stabilizing braces slated to go into effect after it is published in the Federal Register.
Gaetz recounted that he previously “sounded the alarm more than once on ATF overreach.” In 2020, he wrote a letter to DOJ officials calling for them to “rescind any secret determinations which call into question the legality of firearms owned by millions of law-abiding Americans.”
His one-page Abolish the ATF Act has been sent to the House Judiciary Committee for consideration and lacks co-sponsors.
Stabilizing braces are accessories that can elongate guns and sometimes include straps to enhance the accuracy of a firearm. The new rule applies to “stabilizing braces to convert pistols into rifles with a barrel of less than 16 inches.”
Federal officials have defended the move, arguing that the braces have permitted gun owners to circumvent regulations on short-barreled rifles. Congress passed the National Firearms Act in the 1930s to regulate short-barreled rifles because they are “more easily concealable than long-barreled rifles but have more destructive power than traditional handguns,” according to the DOJ.
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Owners of the brace will be required to register the weapons within 120 days of the rule being published by the Federal Register. The ATF insists its new rules will not cover braces “objectively designed and intended as a ‘stabilizing brace’ for use by individuals with disabilities,” but Gaetz believes ATF officials do not understand the weapons.
“I think they are under the flawed conception that a stabilizing brace increases the lethality or danger of a pistol,” the Florida Republican told Fox News. “It seems the ATF is on a snipe hunt for regulatory action that virtue signals to the anti-gun left, but that has no real practical safety impact on Americans.”