By Adam Kraut, Executive Director, Second Amendment Foundation

In a major win against administrative agency actions, a Federal Court in Texas recently ruled the ATF’s pistol brace rule violated the Administrative Procedures Act’s procedural requirements, vacating the Final Rule as invalid.

The pistol brace has endured a yo-yo type relationship with the ATF over the years and has been met with differing ATF determinations and guidance, causing confusion among consumers as to what was legal. However, pistol braces remained lawful to install on a variety of pistols and did not alter their classification or subject them to the control of the National Firearms Act (NFA).

That all changed in 2023. In January of that year, Attorney General Merrick Garland signed a Final Rule, which created a new federal regulation applicable to pistol braces. Among other things, the new regulation implemented a confusing points system where an individual would have to score their firearm to determine if attaching a pistol brace would subject it to the restrictions of the NFA. The Final Rule was challenged by a number of organizations – including the Second Amendment Foundation – shortly after it was signed.

For a little over a year, the cases wound their way through the court system, until June 13, 2024, when a federal district court issued an order and opinion vacating ATF’s Final Rule.

The district court threw out the ATF’s Final Rule as invalid because it substantially deviated from the Proposed Rule originally open to public comment. The court also ruled the ATF did not provide a detailed justification for the reversal of their longstanding position on pistol braces, coupled with the fact the Final Rule’s standards were impermissibly vague.

As a result, the Final Rule is no longer in effect. The government has until Aug. 12 to file an appeal to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals if it wishes to challenge the district court’s judgment. In a bit of good news on this front, even if the government does file an appeal, the Fifth Circuit has previously issued a ruling on this matter indicating that it would likely uphold the district court’s decision. 

We understand this can be confusing, translations are subject to legalese and appears complicated…it’s not…the takeaway is simple the federal court has ruled that pistol stabilizing braces are now legal.

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Adam Kraut is the Second Amendment Foundation’s Executive Director. He brings almost a decade of experience in the Second Amendment realm as a litigator and educator. Throughout his career, Kraut has represented individuals, companies, and institutional plaintiffs in state and federal litigation and regulatory matters. In addition to his legal background, Kraut draws management experience from his time in the non-profit world, where he was responsible for overseeing the programmatic functions of a liberty-based non-profit, which concentrated on Second Amendment issues.