White House threatens to veto GOP resolution against its pistol brace ban

The White House on Monday renewed its support for the Biden administration’s pistol brace ban, threatening to veto a resolution that has been linked to the House conservatives’ revolt. 

The GOP resolution disapproves of the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) rule relating to “Factoring Criteria for Firearms with Attached ‘Stabilizing Braces,’” which the Biden administration released in January. 

The rule, which has been a target of conservatives since Attorney General Merrick Garland announced it, would reclassify pistols that have a stabilizing brace as short-barreled rifles and require those with existing pistols that have stabilizing braces to have registered with the government by May 31, 2023. 

But, last week the resolution’s sponsor, Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.), claimed that GOP leadership told him if he didn’t support advancing the debt limit deal, the resolution would be tough to bring to the floor. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) has denied the claim and that leadership is working to bring it to the floor, Fox News reported.

The president made clear Monday that if the resolution reached his desk, he would veto it. 

“Even though Congressional Republicans should take additional action to keep these and other dangerous weapons off our streets, they are instead pushing a resolution to reverse this rule and the progress we have made to enforce existing statutory requirements on these dangerous weapons,” according to the White House’s Statement of Administration Policy.

The House Judiciary Committee was set to mark up a resolution to nullify the rule in March but postponed it following the mass shooting at a Nashville, Tenn.

“The rationale is clear: short-barreled rifles are more concealable than long guns, yet more dangerous and accurate at a distance than traditional pistols,” according to the White House statement, outlining that Congress restricted them in 1934.

“Recently, however, the gun industry has circumvented this longstanding law by manufacturing and selling so-called ‘stabilizing braces’ that convert heavy pistols into short-barreled rifles,” the statement said.

It noted that the shooters in recent mass shootings like in Dayton, Ohio, and Boulder, Colo., used the brace devices on pistols.

When the rule was announced, the Justice Department said that the new regulation ensures that manufactures, dealers and individuals who use stabilizing braces to convert pistols into rifles with a barrel of less than 16 inches should comply with the laws of short-barrel rifles. 

That marks a change from 2012, when the ATF said pistol attachments do not change the classification of a pistol.