The Biden-era assault on braced pistols by the Department of Justice has finally been laid to rest, nailed shut, and lowered into its tomb six feet under millions of dollars of lawsuits and tens of thousands of pages of court documents.
On July 17, the plaintiffs and Justice Department filed a Stipulation of Dismissal in Mock v. Bondi (formerly Mock v. Garland) in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, marking a victory in this Firearms Policy Coalition-led lawsuit.
“The government is finally retreating from the Biden Administration’s patently unlawful effort to turn millions of peaceable people into felons by decree,” said FPC Action Foundation President Cody J. Wisniewski, an attorney for the challengers, in a statement on their site. “This horrible rule was a perversion of our system of limited government, so we’re glad to see this case resolved in favor of liberty and the rule of law.”
We’ve reported extensively on this case, and the last major decision was a June 14, 2024 ruling that permanently vacated the ATF’s “rule” related to braced pistols. In effect, that rule recategorized braced pistols as Short Barreled Rifles (SBRs) and required owners to take one of five steps to become compliant, as we reported.
With the rule officially dead, owners of braced pistols no longer need to abide by any of those proscribed steps.
