Bondi’s DOJ defies federal court, continues to crack down on pistol braces

The Biden regime’s pistol brace ban is dead. A federal court killed it. President Trump vowed twice on the campaign trail to bury it for good. So why is Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Department of Justice still threatening law-abiding gun owners with felony charges over a piece of polymer and Velcro? On March 16, 2026, the DOJ dropped a legal bombshell in the lawsuit Texas et al. v. ATF, admitting in writing that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives “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.”

Key points:

• A federal court vacated the 2023 ATF pistol brace ban, yet the DOJ continues enforcing it selectively.
• President Trump promised to end the ban “on day one” in 2023 and again in 2024, but his DOJ has not complied.
• The ATF refuses to issue classification letters on legal braces unless a criminal case is already pending, leaving owners as potential targets.
• Gun Owners of America has raised concerns directly with senior DOJ officials and received no indication of a reversal.
• The NFA no longer imposes a tax on short-barreled firearms, removing any remaining justification for enforcement.

A broken promise from Indianapolis to Harrisburg

The pistol brace was never designed to circumvent gun laws. It was born from compassion. Originally created to assist disabled veterans and individuals with limited arm strength or mobility, the brace straps to the forearm using Velcro and rigid polymers, allowing for one-handed shooting of large-format pistols such as AR-style platforms. By design, these pistol braces also improve safety, allowing disabled more control over the firearm.

Unlike a buttstock, which is designed for the shoulder, a brace stabilizes the wrist and forearm. The distinction matters because federal law treats a short-barreled rifle, an SBR, as a heavily restricted item under the National Firearms Act of 1934. Slap a stock on a pistol with a barrel under 16 inches, and you have an SBR. Strap a brace to that same pistol, and you have a legal accessory. Or at least, that was the settled understanding until the Biden administration’s ATF rewrote the rules in 2023, declaring that millions of braces effectively turned pistols into SBRs overnight.

That rule did not survive court scrutiny. A federal judge vacated it nationwide, finding the ATF had overstepped its statutory authority. In response, President Trump stood before crowds in Indianapolis in 2023 and again in Harrisburg in 2024 and promised to end the brace ban on day one of his return to office. Those were not vague talking points. They were explicit commitments to gun owners who had watched the federal government turn a medical aid into a criminal trap.

Yet here we are. The DOJ under Pam Bondi is enforcing a dead rule. The ATF is refusing to issue classification letters that would tell owners which braces are legal unless a criminal case has already been filed. That is not regulation. That is entrapment by paperwork. Every gun owner with a brace on a pistol is now a potential defendant in a felony case, with no way to know if their specific configuration passes muster until a federal agent knocks on the door.

The DOJ’s rogue enforcement and why Congress must act

The absurdity runs deeper. The NFA’s $200 tax stamp for short-barreled firearms was repealed years ago. There is no revenue justification. There is no public safety rationale that survives scrutiny, given that braces do not change the ballistic performance of a firearm. What remains is pure bureaucratic spite. The DOJ is enforcing a vacated rule because it can, because the administrative state does not like being told no, and because career attorneys inside the ATF have spent years trying to reclassify common pistol accessories as contraband.

Gun Owners of America has gone directly to senior DOJ officials. They have raised the concerns of brace owners across the country. And they have received no indication that the ATF plans to reverse course. GOA is now pursuing a permanent injunction in federal court to end this rogue enforcement once and for all. But the judiciary moves slowly, and every day the DOJ continues its crackdown, another law-abiding citizen lives under threat of indictment.

This is where Congress must act. The legislative branch created the ATF. Congress can unmake its authority to enforce a vacated rule. Lawmakers need to hear from constituents that the DOJ’s defiance is unacceptable. The NFA does not impose a tax on short-barreled firearms anymore. There is no justification for bureaucrats to threaten Americans over barrel length. President Trump promised to end this. Bondi’s DOJ is proving those promises were never kept. The only check left is the people telling their representatives to force the DOJ to stand down and protect every pistol brace owner before one more citizen becomes a target.

Sources include:

GunOwners.org

RecoverTactical.com

Justice.gov