ATF Director Refuses to Say If People Will Go to Jail Over Pistol Braces

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) director Steven Dettelbach was questioned by Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) Wednesday and would not say whether Americans will go to jail if found with an unregistered pistol brace once the registration period expires.

Nehls questioned Dettelbach during a House Judiciary Committee hearing. The exchange centered on what will happen to Americans who do not comply with the options set forth by the ATF regarding the pistol brace rule.

Breitbart News reported the ATF published the AR pistol brace rule in the Federal Register on January 31, 2023, giving Americans 120 days from that date to do one of five things:

• Scenario 1: Turn in the entire firearm with the attached “stabilizing brace” to ATF
• Scenario 2: Destroy the whole firearm
• Scenario 3: Convert the short-barreled rifle into a long-barreled rifle
• Scenario 4: Apply to register the weapon under the NFA
• Scenario 5: Permanently remove and dispose of, or alter, the “stabilizing brace” from the firearm so that it cannot be reattached

The exchange in the Judiciary Committee hearing began with Nehls asking what the ATF plans to do to him if he fails to comply and register his pistol brace by the cut-off date of May 31, 2023.

Dettelbach talked but had not gotten around to answering the question when Nehls interjected, “Next thing you’ll probably be saying is that you’re going to have to go door to door.”

Nehls then asked a follow-up question: “Local law enforcement pulls over a car, the guy is drunk. All of a sudden he’s doing an inventory and he finds one of these braces in the back of [the] car…and that brace hasn’t been registered because the guy had no clue this was even out there. Are you going to put that guy in jail for that brace? What is local law enforcement going to do?”

Nehls let Dettelbach know he had 15 seconds to answer the question:

In this morning's @JudiciaryGOP hearing, ATF Director Dettelbach can't provide an answer to @RepTroyNehls about whether the millions of Americans who own pistol braces will go to jail based on the ATF's final rule. Unacceptable. pic.twitter.com/S12cjrRP9U

— Rep. Barry Moore (@RepBarryMoore) April 26, 2023

Dettelbach responded, “With respect to the brace, in and of itself, the ATF doesn’t deal with the brace, the ATF deals with the weapon as assembled as a whole, determining whether it is a short barrel rifle. Which is a determination made…”

Nehls interrupted him and noted that Dettelbach had not answered his question:  “I’m not getting anything from him,”

Nehls then said, “I just want the American people, everybody to understand, you’re going after veterans, individuals like myself…with the resources they currently have.”

WATCH: “Absolutely Asinine”: Don Jr. Weighs In on DOJ’s Pistol Stabilizer Brace Ban

ahawkins

 

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. AWR Hawkins holds a PhD in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.