Press Releases

On Wednesday, a United States District Court effectively halted an overreaching rule from the Biden Administration that would have placed millions of Americans with pistol braces in legal jeopardy. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) had issued a new ban of those pistols which, had it not been for the District Court’s injunction, would have gone into effect on June 1st and forced law-abiding gun owners to either endure an expensive and complicated process of registering the braced pistols or to destroy them altogether.

Those who could not or would not comply with that excessive regulation would be saddled with $10,000 in fines and/or face up to 10 years' imprisonment.

Representative Jack Bergman (R-MI) has staunchly supported the Second Amendment and opposed this heavy-handed bureaucratic rule since it first emerged, issuing a letter to the Department of Justice when the rule was proposed. He also cosponsored H.J. Res. 44, to directly overturn the ATF’s pistol brace rule, and H.R. 646, the SHORT Act, which would remove short-barreled rifles and shotguns from the list of NFA-regulated firearms.

Rep. Bergman issued the following statement on the injunction:

“Law-abiding citizens should not be punished by the ATF if they require a pistol brace to exercise their right to keep and bear arms. This rule would prevent Veterans and many others who rely on the assistance of a brace from using a pistol – and that is unacceptable. I applaud the injunction and hope the Biden Administration receives this message loud and clear: law-abiding Americans don’t deserve to be stripped of their right of self-protection, and I will do everything in my power to make sure that doesn’t occur."