Living topic
ATF Rulemaking & Actions
New rules, letters, and enforcement actions from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
10 stories on this beat · updated May 24, 2026
Brace Rule Is Dead—ATF Is Still Coming for Your Pistol
The courts buried the ATF's pistol brace rule—and the ATF's response was to keep the gun pointed anyway.
atf action · vaultDOJ Becomes Blue States' Gun Confiscation Arm
The federal government just agreed to do what blue-state attorneys general couldn't do in court: keep your lawfully seized property out of your hands — forever.
atf action · vaultATF Won't Tell You What's Illegal—Until You're Arrested
The Biden pistol brace rule is dead—and ATF is betting you think that means you're safe.
atf action · vaultATF Won't Tell You Which Braces Are Illegal—Until Arrest
You beat the brace rule—and ATF is already plotting to take it back through a door you can't see.
atf action · vaultATF Won't Tell You If Your Gun Is Illegal—Until You're Arrested
The Biden brace rule is dead—and ATF is still hunting braced-pistol owners under a standard it openly refuses to publish.
atf action · vaultATF Lost the Brace War—Now It's Using a Backdoor
The courts killed ATF's pistol brace rule—so ATF decided the rule was never the point.
atf action · vaultATF Won't Tell You If Your Brace Is Illegal—Until Arrest
The Biden pistol brace rule is dead—and the ATF is still using the corpse to handcuff gun owners who have no idea their firearm crossed an invisible, unwritten line.
atf action · vaultATF Adopts the Bryan Standard for 'Willfully' — Zero-Tolerance Audits Just Got Survivable
Buried in the 34-rule ATF reform package is a definitional change that will save more FFL licenses over the next five years than any other single piece of the package: the formal adoption of the Bryan v. United States (1998) standard for what counts as a 'willful' violation of the Gun Control Act.
atf action · vaultATF Just Killed the CLEO Copy Rule. Your Sheriff No Longer Vetoes Your NFA.
Among the 34 proposed rule changes the DOJ and ATF dropped on April 29, one quietly delivers what NFA buyers in blue-state cities and counties have been asking for since the original 1934 statute: an end to the requirement that you notify your local chief law enforcement officer when you buy a suppressor, short-barrel rifle, or short-barrel shotgun.
atf action · vault30+ ATF Rules Hit the Shredder in One Day — and the New Director Is a Career Agent
Three years of court losses, executive orders, and Bruen-era pressure produced what 2A advocates have been demanding since the day the pistol brace rule dropped: a thirty-plus-rule package, dropped in a single press conference, with a career ATF agent now wearing the director's badge.