GIFFORDS Condemns House Vote to Repeal Pistol Brace Regulation

Washington DC — Today, GIFFORDS, the gun violence prevention organization founded by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, condemned the vote by the U.S. House to repeal a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) rule regulating stabilizing braces.

“Republicans often echo the gun lobby’s false assertion that enforcing the laws on the books is the only solution to gun violence–yet, when ATF attempts to do so, they make every effort to undermine ATF.  The ATF’s rule that House Republicans voted to repeal today simply clarified that existing regulations on short-barreled rifles should apply to devices that convert pistols into the same sort of short-barreled rifle. Repealing this rule leaves open a dangerous loophole that makes it easier for mass shooters to turn pistols into easily-concealable rifles, something that we’ve seen used most recently in the Nashville and Colorado Springs shootings. 

“It is deplorable that members of the House of Representatives have put the gun industry’s profits ahead of the lives of their constituents.”

Stabilizing braces, when used with certain semi-automatic pistols, can transform a handgun into a short-barrelled rifle. Short-barreled rifles are regulated under the National Firearms Act of 1934 because of the unique danger they pose to public safety: they are concealable and maneuverable like a handgun, but fire with the accuracy of a rifle. While the initial design of the stabilizing brace produced in 2012 was to aid persons with disabilities to fire a pistol safely, the design has evolved over the years. Modern iterations of the brace are easily used to replicate a shoulder stock, with shooters using the brace to shoulder the firearm, creating a short-barrelled rifle. Semi-automatic pistols equipped with stabilizing braces enable the shooter to use the brace as a shoulder stock, enhancing the accuracy of the weapon when firing multiple rounds in quick succession. 

The dangers of these braces being used to shoulder semi-automatic pistols are not theoretical. Semi-automatic pistols equipped with stabilizing braces were used in multiple mass shootings: 

• 9 people were killed and 27 other injured outside a bar in Dayton, Ohio in just 32 seconds; 
• 10 people killed at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado; 
• 5 people killed and 25 injured at Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colorado; 
• 6 people—3 of whom were only 9 years old—were killed at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee.

Rule 2021R-08F states that certain models of semi-automatic pistols with barrels shorter than 16 inches in length equipped with a stabilizing brace that allows an individual to use the brace like a stock and shoulder the firearm, qualifies as short-barrelled rifles under federal law. This means that these firearms must be regulated under the National Firearms Act. 

The regulation includes many options to gun owners in possession of braces attached to pistols that qualify as short-barrelled rifles under the regulation to comply with the law. Gun owners can register their firearm with the ATF, with the ATF waiving the standard $200 NFA Tax Stamp fee to make it as easy a process for gun owners as possible. Gun owners can also change the barrel length of their pistol to extend beyond 16 inches and continue using the stabilizing brace attached to that firearm, as the longer barrel would no longer qualify as a short-barrelled rifle.

More than five years ago, GIFFORDS identified the threat of particularly dangerous firearms including the risk posed by AR-15 style assault pistols equipped with stabilizing braces and has been advocating for this dangerous threat to be addressed. 

In 2015, ATF determined that AR pistols equipped with arm braces are short-barreled rifles, since they can be fired from the shoulder and have a barrel that is shorter than 16 inches in length, which would require regulation under the National Firearms Act. However, in March 2017, ATF clarified that a pistol with an arm brace attached is not a short-barreled rifle unless the arm brace is being used with the intent to fire the weapon from the shoulder. ATF’s decision failed to address the significant public safety threat posed by these pistol arm braces. The differing decisions also created uncertainty among gun owners about whether they needed to register their firearms equipped with braces under the National Firearms Act

In 2023, ATF issued a rule that clarified that stabilizing braces, when attached to certain semi-automatic pistols with barrels shorter than 16 inches in length, that could be shouldered by the user qualifies as a short-barrelled rifle under the National Firearms Act. GIFFORDS led a public campaign in support of ATF’s decision to advance this regulation.

Additionally in May 2023, more than one thousand, GIFFORDS Gun Owners for Safety sent a letter to Congressional leaders, urging them to block the repeal of this regulation. 

• Fact Sheet: Debunking Gun Lobby Myths About the Stabilizing Brace Rule
• Letter: More Than One Thousand Gun Owners Urge Congress to Block Repeal of Pistol Brace Regulation

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