A district court judge on Wednesday blocked the execution of a new regulation from the Biden administration that would have made it a crime for gun owners not to register their braced guns.
In January, the ATF adopted a rule mandating registration and compliance with gun owners who use stabilizing braces. Braces for the shoulder can convert a handgun into a rifle with a shorter barrel.
Texas and other gun rights groups have filed suit against the ATF. A preliminary injunction ordered by Judge Drew Tipton of the Southern Texas District Court will delay the June 1 implementation.
The court issued an eight-page order finding that Texas had established irreparable harm if the regulation went into force while the litigation was pending.
The judgment states that Texas argued that the legislation would injure gun owners in three ways: by harming Texas’ sovereign interests, by harming Texas’ quasi-sovereign interests, and by imposing unrecoverable compliance costs on some of Texas’ workers.
While ruling that Texas failed to show “irreparable harm,” Tipton did concede that the cost of compliance would be a significant hardship for the state’s gun owners.
In its application for a preliminary injunction, Texas contended that the regulation would make it harder for Texans and law officers to keep themselves safe.
Because the Final Rule will make it illegal to possess previously lawful guns, decreasing Texans’ capacity to protect themselves, Texas has filed a motion for a preliminary injunction. The Texas Department of Public Safety will now have to spend time and money registering firearms owned by officers that have stabilizing bracing installed.
Until the accelerated appeal in Mock v. Garland, another federal complaint challenging the ATF’s regulation is resolved, Tipton upheld the order.
According to a news statement from Gun Owners for America senior vice president and plaintiff Erich Pratt, President Biden’s attempt to utilize the DOJ against law-abiding gun owners was an assault on millions of Americans. Pratt said that he didn’t think the president would make another attempt like this. We appreciate Judge Tipton’s deliberation on behalf of our members who faced criminal charges for having a plastic object due to the ATF’s capricious categorization.
The Gun Owners of America (GOA) will not give up fighting the anti-gun government and safeguarding the rights of gun owners around the country.
