Federal Judge Vacates ATF ‘Partially Complete’ Pistol Frame Rule

A federal judge in the United States District Court Northern District of Texas Fort Worth Division vacated the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF’s) “partially complete” percent pistol frame rule on Friday.

The judge, Reed O’Connor, issued the decision in Vanderstok v. Garland, brought by Jennifer Vanderstok, Firearms Policy Coalition, the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), and others.

The ATF used its pistol frame rule to redefine “partially complete pistol frames” as “firearms.” But Judge O’Connor stressed that such a redefinition is up to Congress, rather than a federal agency. O’Connor noted, “Because Congress did not define ‘frame or receiver,’ the words receive their ordinary meaning.”

He also stressed, “Final Rule’s amended definition of “frame or receiver” does not accord with the ordinary meaning of those terms and is therefore in conflict with the plain statutory language.”

O’Connor also pointed out that “weapons parts are not weapons.” He then vacated the ATF final rule.

SAF founder and executive vice president Alan Gottlieb commented on the decision, saying, “With this decision, the court has properly struck down ATF’s rule and ensured that it cannot enforce that which it never had the authority to publish in the first place.”

The case is Vanderstok v. Garland, No. 4:22-cv-00691-O, in the United States District Court Northern District of Texas Fort Worth Division.

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. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010, a speaker at the 2023 Western Conservative Summit, and he holds a Ph.D. 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.