Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Director Steve Dettelbach avoided confirming Wednesday whether the agency would pursue prosecution against people who violated its new pistol brace rule accidentally.
The rule requires owners to register pistols with braces as “short barrel rifles” by redefining a weapon “designed or redesigned, made or remade, and intended to be fired from the shoulder” as a “rifle,” with a May 31 deadline. Republican Texas Rep. Troy Nehls said he viewed the rule as “a direct assault” on law-abiding Americans’ Second Amendment rights, asking Dettelbach what enforcement mechanism the ATF would use to fine or possibly sentence people to jail if they do not comply or aren’t aware of it, during the Wednesday House Judiciary Committee hearing on ATF oversight.