The ATF is Coming After Pistol Braces Again
BY Herschel SmithWho’d a thunk it, since, remember boys and girls, this is the most pro-2A administration in history.
Who’d a thunk it, since, remember boys and girls, this is the most pro-2A administration in history.
Hahaha. Right. Okay.
🚨$0 NFA UPDATE🚨
ATF just DENIED a GOA member's Form 1 because he wanted a suppressor to "exercise my God-given right." @ATFHQ said this was an "insufficient answer."
In other words, ATF openly, brazenly, arbitrarily, & tyrannically denied the exercise of a God-given right. pic.twitter.com/5KGa6Kye3x
— Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) February 9, 2026
My understanding is that this has been ironed out, or may be, but remember boys and girls, Pam Bondi is a gun controller and always has been, and pro-2A to the president means getting a permit from the government.
But they always have had that. To work for the ATF these days you must have no conscience.
Your existence puts everyone at risk.
AMIRITE?
— Firearms Policy Coalition (@gunpolicy) August 20, 2025
The original post has been removed. It said:
The millions of law-abiding Americans who have chosen to carry a concealed firearm are putting “everyone involved at risk,” the ATF announced this week in a tweet on X.
“Take a look into our world. This is a scenario @ATFWasington frequently faces when combatting violent crime and maintaining public safety. Many people attempt to conceal firearms on their person or belongings which puts everyone involved at risk. #MakeDCSafeAgain #ATF,” the ATF tweeted on X.
As you can imagine, ATF’s message received hundreds of overwhelmingly negative responses including many that are not fit to reprint.
I’m sure they did – and I’m sure they deserved them all.
That’s the headline from Washington Post.
When Robert Leider became chief counsel at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in March, agency employees briefed him about a controversial device known as a “forced reset trigger,” according to people familiar with the discussions. The device allows semiautomatic weapons to fire more rapidly, and ATF had classified them as machine guns, effectively making them illegal.
That classification was challenged in court, with gun owners and manufacturers represented by legal teams that included David Warrington, who has since become President Donald Trump’s White House counsel. Now the Trump administration was considering reversing the Biden-era classification.
In a bid to explain the classification, ATF workers took Leider to a shooting range to see how the triggers operate, according to people familiar with the outing, who like others interviewed spoke on the condition of anonymity because they feared retribution. At the end of the process, Leider, an Antonin Scalia Law School professor and gun rights attorney, agreed: The devices were dangerous, and the classification as machine guns should stand, the people said.
But Leider’s opinion did not prevail. After tense conversations between Leider and powerful Justice Department officials, including Emil Bove, principal associate deputy attorney general, the department announced late Friday that it was settling the litigation, clearing the way for the items to be sold and used.
Under the terms of the settlement, “forced reset triggers” will remain legal so long as their manufacturer refrains from developing similar devices for pistols and enforces its patents to stop copycats, Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.
“This Department of Justice believes that the 2nd Amendment is not a second-class right,” Bondi said. “And we are glad to end a needless cycle of litigation with a settlement that will enhance public safety.”
It’s funny how the WaPo titled this missive. “Pro gun lawyer.” Pro gun indeed.
We should be able to own machine guns without having to go through the trouble of using FRTs. I think the author and I have a different definition of pro gun. That he graduated from the Antonin Scalia school of law is irrelevant to me.
Here is Tom Grieve explaining the details of the settlement.
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If enacted, the cuts would force the agency to slash hundreds or more jobs, two of the sources said, in addition to the nearly 600 people who have already accepted the government’s deferred resignation option.
The agency employs about 5,300, about half of whom are special agents, according to public records. It has been unable to fill about 150 slots for special agents due to budget cuts in 2024, forcing it to cancel its incoming agent classes, two of the sources said.
Well, it’s a start. Why don’t we send the federal Marshals over to their officers and find and destroy the illegal firearms registration lists they have? And then terminate the bureau completely?
A bit of good news. It’s about time.
🚨BREAKING🚨
@AGPamBondi's 2nd Amendment Task Force has withdrawn DOJ's anti-gun position in New York v. Arm or Ally.Recently rogue bureaucrats advanced a Biden-era lawsuit by weaponizing the VanDerStok ruling against gun manufacturers ex post facto, drawing GOA's criticism. https://t.co/ZGlwzcq6IF pic.twitter.com/ZYUthRnUqQ
— Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) April 22, 2025
David Codrea notes that the NSSF is gushing about the new ATF director after Kash Patel was let go from those duties. Forgive me if I say that the NSSF endorsement means absolutely nothing whatsoever to me. They are not in existence to defend either your rights or the 2A.
David knows nothing about him. Neither do I. He has no record at all. This article adds nothing to the discussion.
Time will tell, but I won’t gush over anyone until I see the results. Mr. Driscoll needs to be in front of the house and senate answering questions and trying to persuade them to remove SBRs and suppressors from the NFA. Until I see that, he’s just another talking head doing the bidding of the beltway.
This via David Codrea.
It really does boggle the imagination how the senate and house can be so stolid, unresponsive, stupid, and lazy. They should have removed suppressors from the NFA long ago.
As for that matter, where is OSHA in all of this? Suppressors are about hearing protection. Given the popularity of hunting and the shooting sports, as well as the former military members who have come home with damaged hearing, you’d think if they cared anything about their profession or the people they’re supposed to serve and protect, they would have already been screaming to congress. As for that matter, the ATF should have already been in front of congress pleading to remove suppressors from the NFA.
Only if they cared …
Two amicus briefs came in today on Sanchez v. Bonta, our case challenging California's total ban on suppressors. The first is from National Association for Gun Rights, and the second is from a group of amici including Silencer Shop, Palmetto State Armory, and others. We… pic.twitter.com/kFU44oYqHt
— Kostas Moros (@MorosKostas) April 4, 2025
I don’t know. Len Savage sends this.
I guess it’s complicated, but according to Mike, it would be a good thing for suppressors to remain under consideration as firearms because then it warrants 2A protection.
I still want to see suppressors off the NFA. For hearing protection. For me. For the children.
🚨UPDATE🚨
GOA & GOF have been GAGGED from printing the news (uncovered in a FOIA) for 18 months.
Despite a recent ruling by the D.C. Circuit prohibiting such gag orders, Biden holdovers in @TheJusticeDept are asking the court to extend this First Amendment violation. pic.twitter.com/sp2FrKNmQo
— Gun Owners Foundation (@GunFoundation) March 12, 2025
Here is a link to the brief.
BLUF. The ATF is illegally spying on gun owners and keeping a gun registry – but of course, you already knew that. GOA has the goods on them. In order to prevent folks from knowing, the FedGov shopped around for a corrupt judge (and of course found one) who gagged GOA from releasing the information.
Guess who is responsible for this? Our buddy, Stephen.
David Codrea also has thoughts.