ATF Bureaucrats Kept Going After Gun Owners Beat Them in Court but They Infuriated the Wrong Congressman
The ATF's Biden-era pistol brace rule is dead – courts killed it, and Trump's DOJ walked away from the appeal.
Now a March 16 federal court filing just revealed the ATF never stopped enforcing it.
A Missouri congressman read that filing, and he's done playing around with this agency.
ATF Admits It Never Stopped Enforcing the Pistol Brace Ban
The filing landed in the Southern District of Texas on March 16, 2026.
Gun Owners of America had been pushing for an injunction to stop the ATF from enforcing the legal theories that underpinned the now-dead pistol brace rule – the Biden-era regulation that overnight reclassified millions of legally purchased pistols as short-barreled rifles under the National Firearms Act.
Federal courts had already vacated the rule.
The 5th Circuit found it arbitrary and capricious – a violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.
The 8th Circuit agreed.
Trump's DOJ dropped its appeal in July 2025.
Gun owners celebrated.
Then came March 16.
The ATF's own court brief acknowledged it "continue[s] to enforce the NFA's and the GCA's regulation of short-barreled rifles against some brace-equipped pistols, even though the Rule has been universally vacated."
The rule is dead.
The enforcement is not.
Up to ten years in federal prison – for owning something you bought legally, something the ATF itself told you was legal for over a decade.
The agency's argument is that courts killed the rule, not the underlying statutory interpretation – and it will enforce that interpretation however it sees fit until a separate order specifically targets that reading.
GOA has gone directly to senior DOJ officials with these concerns and received no indication the ATF plans to reverse course.
Burlison Renews Push to Abolish the ATF After Bombshell Court Filing
Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO) went straight to X after reading the filing.
"A federal court struck down the ATF's pistol brace rule," Burlison wrote. "The DOJ dropped its appeal. And now the ATF admits it's STILL enforcing that same interpretation against law-abiding gun owners. Up to 10 years in prison for a rule the courts already killed. This is exactly why I introduced the Abolish the ATF Act. This agency is out of control."
Burlison introduced H.R. 221 – the Abolish the ATF Act – alongside Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) in January 2025.
Original cosponsors include Reps. Andy Biggs, Paul Gosar, Mary Miller, Mike Collins, Andy Ogles, Keith Self, and Bob Onder – with additional members joining since introduction.
President Trump promised twice on the campaign trail to end the pistol brace ban on day one.
He said it in Indianapolis in 2023.
He said it again in Harrisburg in 2024.
His own DOJ is proving those promises were never kept.
Maybe with Pam Bondi out of the way that will change.
The ATF Has Been Defying Gun Owners and Federal Courts for Decades
This is not a new pattern.
Operation Fast and Furious – the ATF scheme that deliberately walked thousands of guns into the hands of Mexican drug cartels – left Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry dead and the agency entirely unaccountable.
Nobody went to prison.
Before that, Waco – where the ATF pressed forward with a raid after losing the element of surprise, and 76 people died, including 25 children.
The supervisors responsible were suspended and then quietly reinstated with full back pay.
The ATF also tried to ban bump stocks – a move the Supreme Court struck down 6-3 in Garland v. Cargill.
In every single case, the courts said no.
In every single case, the ATF looked for a workaround.
A Senate subcommittee investigating the ATF's conduct in the early 1980s declared the agency's enforcement tactics "constitutionally, legally, and practically reprehensible" – and that was decades before Fast and Furious, before Waco, before the pistol brace debacle.
This agency has been doing this for fifty years.
Millions of disabled veterans and law-abiding gun owners are now in the crosshairs – people who relied on written ATF assurances for over a decade, who bought a legal accessory, who followed every rule they were given.
The ATF told a federal judge in Texas that none of that matters.
Call your representative today.
H.R. 221 needs to move.
An agency that defies federal courts, ignores the president's own campaign promises, and threatens veterans with ten-year felonies over a legally purchased brace does not need to be reformed.
It needs to be abolished.
Sources:
- AWR Hawkins, "Rep. Burlison Renews Push to Abolish ATF After Agency Allegedly Continues Enforcement of Nullified Rule," Breitbart, April 1, 2026.
- Scott Witner, "ATF Admits It's Still Enforcing Pistol Brace Rules — Even After the Rule Was Killed," The Truth About Guns, March 21, 2026.
- "DOJ Legal Filing Renews Concerns About ATF's Posture on Braced Pistols," NRA-ILA, March 20, 2026.
- "DOJ Drops Appeal in Pistol Brace Ban Case," The Reload, July 22, 2025.
- Rep. Eric Burlison, "Rep. Burlison Introduces the Abolish the ATF Act to Defend Americans' Second Amendment Rights," burlison.house.gov, January 7, 2025.
