DOJ Filing Signals ATF's Brace War Isn't Over

A new Department of Justice legal filing has reignited serious concerns that the ATF has not truly abandoned its crusade against pistol-braced firearms, despite the Trump administration's early moves to roll back the Biden-era brace rule. The filing suggests the agency may still be positioning itself to reclassify braced pistols as short-barreled rifles under the National Firearms Act — a move that would turn millions of law-abiding Americans into felons overnight.

Let's be clear about what the NFA brace rule always was: a bureaucratic power grab that criminalized a firearm configuration used by hundreds of thousands of disabled veterans and everyday gun owners — without a single vote in Congress.

The ATF's original 2023 rule under Biden and Merrick Garland was a disaster from day one. It forced owners of legally purchased firearms to either register, destroy, or surrender their property. Courts hammered it. The Fifth Circuit blocked it. The NRA-ILA fought it at every turn.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche now oversees the DOJ that submitted this latest filing. Gun owners deserve a straight answer from his office: Is the federal government still treating brace owners as targets?

The NRA-ILA has tracked every twist in this saga and continues to sound the alarm. This filing is not a minor procedural footnote — it signals that the ATF's institutional appetite to regulate braced pistols into the NFA registry has not been extinguished, regardless of which party holds the White House.

Millions of Americans bought pistol braces in good faith, following ATF guidance that explicitly declared them legal — guidance the agency then reversed without remorse. These are not criminals. They are gun owners who trusted the federal government and got burned.

The Second Amendment does not have an asterisk for accessories the ATF decides it doesn't like this week.

Don't let your guard down. Contact Acting AG Todd Blanche's office and demand the DOJ issue unambiguous guidance: braced pistols are legal, their owners are not criminals, and the ATF's war on this firearm configuration is finished for good.