Paxton sues Biden administration to block illegal rule violating Americans’ Second Amendment rights

Austin, Texas — Attorney General Paxton, along with a coalition of other plaintiffs, is suing the Biden administration over a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (“ATF”) rule targeting handgun owners who use stabilizing braces. Attorney General Paxton is cooperating with the Gun Owners of America in this lawsuit.

For years, Americans have used stabilizing braces extensively in exercising their Second Amendment rights for a variety of purposes, and millions of them have been sold nationwide. Braces can reduce recoil, help people with disabilities, prevent injury, and generally help people handle weapons more safely and accurately.

The Biden administration is now targeting law-abiding Americans with burdensome registration requirements by defining a stabilizing brace pistol as a “short-barreled rifle.” This change in classification would require people to register their possession of firearms with the federal government or face up to ten years in prison if they don’t follow the rules.

This violation of Second Amendment rights is fundamentally unconstitutional, as well as illegal for many other reasons. The new rule is arbitrary and capricious, it was enacted in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act, and the federal body that makes the rule, the ATF, does not have the legal authority to designate handguns with stabilizing braces as short rifles.

“This is yet another attempt by the Biden administration to work around the US Constitution and expand gun registration in America,” Attorney General Paxton said. “There is absolutely no legal basis for the ATF’s haphazard decision to try to change the long-standing classification of stabilizing braces, forcefully register Americans, and then throw them in jail for ten years if they don’t quickly comply. This rule is dangerous and unconstitutional, and I hope this lawsuit ensures that it never goes into effect.”

To read the claim in full, click here.