ATF Director Steve Dettelbach spent Wednesday (April 26th) in front of the House Judiciary Committee answering questions on ATF overreach. Republicans, in particular committee chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), slammed ATF’s capricious shift on pistol stabilizing braces, while Democrats assaulted the Republicans’ motivations for questioning why ATF is trying to turn potentially millions of law abiding gun owners into felons by retroactively applying a new opinion to a product that was previously ATF-approved.

Rep. Jordan’s primary contentions were:

• ATF has overstepped its authority. Unelected bureaucrats are effectively making new laws. Jordan said, “That’s not how it’s supposed to work in our great country. Congress writes the laws and the executive branch enforces them. Here, the executive branch has taken power from Congress in deciding what the law should be . . . Director Dettelbach has, in essence, become a one man Congress.”

• ATF has been inconsistent in its opinions on the legality and legal use of pistol stabilizing braces. Jordan and other Republicans reminded Dettelbach that ATF has published official letters approving stabilizing braces, but has been inconsistent on the matter for years, leading to confusion among well-intentioned gun owners.

Dettelbach claimed that the new rule aims to establish consistency. Which, I suppose, it more or less does by making a blanket claim that effectively any firearm with a pistol brace on the rear is a rifle.

Rep. Jordan stated, “I think the inconsistency is with the ATF because you told them one thing, and now you’re changing.”

• Law abiding gun owners will become felons overnight, due to ex post facto (retroactive) application of ATF’s new opinion on pistol braces. An estimated three million or more stabilizing braces have been sold to consumers, many or even most of which were an included component of a complete pistol as designed by a firearm manufacturer and sold at retail. Potentially millions of well-intentioned owners will have no idea about ATF’s change of heart, suddenly becoming felons facing a potential 10-year prison sentence and $250,000 fine overnight and without even realizing it. Dettelbach insisted that ATF has begun a “very significant education campaign” with firearms dealers to get the word out (as an FFL holder, I can confirm that three emails were sent by ATF in January with an invite to a “Stabilizing Brace Virtual Training on WebEx”).

On the plus side, when pressed by Jordan, Dettelbach said it “would depend on the facts and circumstances” of an individual case as to whether a gun owner who didn’t register his or her brace-equipped pistol would be prosecuted. Although it sure hasn’t felt like this has been their priority over the last couple of decades, Dettelbach insisted that ATF is prioritizing enforcement of these rules against gang members, and would be “unlikely” to prosecute gun owners who didn’t register because they were unaware of the rule change.

Oh. Okay. Sure. Like the ATF needs this ridiculous clerical error of a confusing, pedantic re-interpretation of law in order to prosecute gang members.

Meanwhile, when given the opportunity to ask questions of Director Dettelbach, Democrats such as Adam Schiff (D-CA, not a long ball hitter) and Jerrold Nadler (D-NY, once pooped his pants on stage) simply attacked the Republicans in all the normal ways. Pawns of the gun industry, pro insurrection, don’t want to protect Americans from violent crime, in favor of murdering children, contributing to the epidemic of gun violence, etc.

While we’re running out of time before this new ATF ruling on pistol braces officially goes into effect after May 31st, we remain confident that a stay or injunction will be issued. There are dozens of major lawsuits underway, including from multiple states’ attorneys general, and as discussed here the whole situation has gained the attention of the House and Senate. Stay tuned.