[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 21 (Wednesday, February 1, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H620-H624]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1815
                   PROTECTING PISTOL-BRACED FIREARMS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 9, 2023, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. 
Clyde) for 30 minutes.


                             General Leave

  Mr. CLYDE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may 
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and 
include extraneous materials.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Georgia?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. CLYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, on January 13 of this year, the ATF finalized its 
unconstitutional rule pertaining to firearms with stabilizing braces. 
Under this new ATF rule, any pistol-braced firearm would be considered 
an illegal short-barreled rifle, subjecting these firearms to draconian 
regulations under the NFA, the National Firearms Act of 1934, and 
turning millions of law-abiding gun owners into criminals literally 
overnight.
  Unelected antigun bureaucrats informed law-abiding gun owners 
possessing pistols with these braces attached that they will have only 
120 days to register them once the rule is published in the Federal 
Register. This 120-day amnesty window started yesterday, January 31.
  As we have seen across the world time and time again, what comes 
before gun confiscation? Gun registration. That is right. That is 
exactly what ATF is now demanding.

[[Page H621]]

  For stabilizer brace owners who do not wish to register their 
firearms, the ATF provides four alternatives.
  The first: Turn in the entire firearm with the attached stabilizing 
brace to the ATF. That means forfeiting your firearm.
  The second: Destroy the whole firearm. Again, another forfeiture of 
your firearm.
  The third: Convert the pistol brace into a long-barreled rifle that 
does not require registration but is also much more difficult to use 
with a brace.
  The fourth: Permanently remove and dispose of, or alter the 
stabilizing brace, from the firearm so that it cannot be reattached.
  If gun owners who possess braced firearms refuse to register, 
destroy, turn in, or alter their firearm after this 120-day window, 
they face National Firearms Act violations, felony violations, 
including hefty fines of up to $250,000 and up to 10 years in prison 
for having an unregistered short-barreled rifle.
  In other words, the ATF's rule turns law-abiding gun owners into 
criminals, into felons, for simply doing nothing.
  That is right. If they do nothing, then after 120 days, they are in 
felony violation of ATF's reinterpreted law, all for simply maintaining 
their Second Amendment freedoms.
  What exactly are these alleged hazardous stabilizing braces? A pistol 
brace, also known as a stabilizing brace, is simply an accessory that 
is attached to the rear of a large firearm in order to anchor the gun 
to the shooter's arm to better stabilize it, allowing them to be more 
accurately shot one-handed, just like what you see right here. This is 
a stabilizing brace.
  These braces were actually designed to help disabled veterans enjoy 
the sport of shooting. In fact, as a Federal firearms licensee, my 
company has sold many of these pistol brace firearms to assist disabled 
veterans so they can improve their shooting capabilities and their 
accuracy.
  Unfortunately, these beneficial braces have faced uninformed and 
unwarranted backlash from unelected bureaucrats for years.
  In 2012, the ATF provided a letter determining that pistol braces 
were legal to use and to shoulder. This decision was then reversed 3 
years later by the ATF. In 2015, stabilizing braces became illegal to 
shoulder, turning braced firearms into unregistered short-barreled 
rifles. The braces remained legal if held at arm's length but illegal 
if brought back to the shoulder. How does that make any sense?
  This flip-flopped again in 2017 when stabilizing braces were once 
more determined to be legal to shoulder by the ATF, as long as the 
original design of the brace remained unmodified.
  Here we are in 2023 as braced pistols are vilified yet again, 
declared by the ATF to be unregistered short-barreled rifles requiring 
registration and their owners classified as felons if they simply do 
nothing.
  Clearly, as in most cases of unconstitutional gun control, unelected 
bureaucrats who have little to no knowledge of firearms or respect for 
Second Amendment rights are steamrolling ahead with unlawful 
restrictions, which will impact, estimates say, anywhere from 3 million 
to up to 40 million firearms across the country.
  Why? To advance the less dangerous dream of disarming our Nation and 
dismantling our Second Amendment rights. That is what gun control is 
all about.
  The ultimate goal is an unarmed and subjugated America. I can assure 
gun owners across this great Nation that I and Second Amendment-loving 
Republican colleagues will do everything in our power to never allow 
that to happen.
  We are fighting this, and we are not going to give up. Congress 
cannot allow the ATF to brazenly disregard both our Constitution and 
Congress' role, its sole role in legislation, its legislative 
authority.
  I don't know if ATF Director Dettelbach needs a copy of the 
Constitution to revisit the explicit language of the Second Amendment 
or the direct powers granted to the three branches of government, but 
the last time I checked, only Congress has the authority to make laws.
  Let me say that again. Congress makes laws, not unelected antigun 
bureaucrats at the ATF or any other part of the executive branch, for 
that matter.
  Yet, given the ATF's severely misguided decision to advance its 
unconstitutional pistol brace rule, I am actively leading the fight to 
stop this grave injustice.
  We have three key tools available to us in Congress to fight the 
ATF's tyranny.
  The first is H.R. 646, the Stop Harassing Owners of Rifles Today Act, 
or the SHORT Act, which I reintroduced yesterday with Senators Roger 
Marshall and John Kennedy. This legislation repeals elements of the 
National Firearms Act, thereby prohibiting the ATF from registering and 
banning pistols with stabilizing braces.
  The second element is a joint resolution of disapproval under the 
Congressional Review Act, which we will introduce in a matter of days 
to block the ATF's rule from infringing on Americans' Second Amendment 
rights. Congressman Richard Hudson, our NRCC chair, has joined me in 
co-leading this in the House, while Senators John Kennedy and Roger 
Marshall will introduce the resolution in the Senate.
  The third way that we can fight this here in Congress is through the 
power of the purse. As we write the ATF's appropriations for fiscal 
year 2024, we can prevent taxpayer dollars from funding this backdoor 
gun control through what is called a limitation amendment. As a new 
member on the Appropriations Committee and the Subcommittee on 
Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, I look forward to 
assisting in this effort.
  With these three initiatives, we can work together to stop the ATF's 
unconstitutional overreach.
  It would be better if the ATF simply decided to rescind the pistol 
brace rule so we would not have to take these permanent measures, but 
we are fully prepared to do so if they will not rescind it.
  I am proud to have several of my colleagues here tonight to expose 
the ATF's unconstitutional rule, as well as to highlight how Congress 
can stop this latest form of gun control from infringing on law-abiding 
gun owners' Second Amendment freedoms.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Van Drew).
  Mr. VAN DREW. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for doing this 
today, and I thank him for leading the fight.
  Yesterday, I stood on this floor fighting to protect Americans' First 
Amendment rights. Today, I am standing here fighting to protect 
Americans' Second Amendment rights. God help our Constitution.
  Congress has afforded far too much deference to unelected D.C. 
bureaucrats in Federal agencies, and it is time, with our majority, to 
rein in that extreme power.
  The left has talked about taking your gas stoves away, has censored 
your speech, and now the ATF, under the guidance of this 
administration, is coming to take away millions of pistols from law-
abiding gun owners, individuals who own pistol braces, which were 
originally approved by the ATF themselves.
  What has changed? What is different? What is new? I will tell you 
what has changed. What has changed is now we have an administration 
that is desperate to erode our Second Amendment rights in more and more 
pervasive ways as every year passes. It has continually chipped away at 
Americans' constitutional rights because of the lack of understanding 
of what the actual roots of gun violence are.
  The administration is abusing the powers delegated to the ATF to 
illegally track gun owners, perform unauthorized compliance checks at 
people's homes, and now banning popular modifications that, I will say 
it again, they approved in the first place.
  It has to stop. We are tired of it. Americans are tired of it. This 
has to end. That is why I am proud to join these efforts to protect gun 
owners across this great United States of America.
  As their duly elected Representatives, we must fight back. We must 
stand tall. We must be tough and stand against this abuse of power on 
their behalf.
  Let me say this: As a duly elected official and a gun owner myself, 
all I have left to say to the ATF is enough is enough. Our right to 
keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

[[Page H622]]

  

  Mr. CLYDE. I thank my good friend from New Jersey, from one of those 
blue States where you don't necessarily think that there are passionate 
gun owners. I appreciate them.
  Mr. VAN DREW. South Jersey. I am going to teach you that. South 
Jersey is a lot different.
  Mr. CLYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Colorado 
(Mrs. Boebert), who is also the co-chair of our Second Amendment Caucus 
here in Congress and my good friend.
  Mrs. BOEBERT. Mr. Speaker, first, I thank my friend, fellow Freedom 
Caucus colleague, and proven fighter for the Second Amendment, Mr. 
Clyde, for organizing this Special Order. I thank him for highlighting 
what is going on here.
  Mr. Speaker, the ATF's new pistol brace rule violates the separation 
of powers. Bureaucrats don't create laws; Congress does. This rule 
functions like a law that Congress never passed.
  ATF--Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. In western Colorado, we call 
that a fun weekend, but D.C. bureaucrats have used this agency to 
infringe on the rights of the American people.
  When you research how many pistol braces the ATF expects to be 
registered, the number varies. Some say 10 million, others say 20 
million, and it may even be 40 million.
  Why such disparity? Because the ATF doesn't know how many are out 
there because law-abiding Americans do not trust them enough to tell 
them.
  In fact, there are probably going to be many more boating accidents 
this spring and summer than we have ever encountered in U.S. history 
from law-abiding gun owners.
  We don't trust the ATF because of their overreaching actions, exactly 
like we are seeing with this rule.
  There has been a lot of talk about defunding the ATF, even abolishing 
the agency altogether. I am still waiting to hear a good reason why the 
ATF should remain an agency at all. I have yet to hear one.
  Instead of providing regulations that keep our communities safe, this 
agency has made our communities more dangerous by laundering weapons to 
the cartels. Operation Fast and Furious exposed the recklessness of the 
ATF, how little regard they have for the rule of law, and Americans 
have had a hard time viewing this agency and its rules as legitimate.
  Think about it. The ATF had about 1,700 firearms that were being 
tracked. They had tracers on them. They were selling to known criminals 
during this Operation Fast and Furious. They lost 1,700 traced 
firearms, and now they expect to go after law-abiding American citizens 
for firearm accessories?
  Are they really that competent to go after this many millions of 
Americans for a firearm accessory, a stabilizing brace, when they had 
1,700 tracked firearms in the hands of known criminals that they just 
lost?
  I think that alone proves the legitimacy of this agency, and I am 
very excited to bring them into an Oversight and Accountability 
Committee hearing so they can speak for themselves as to why they 
should remain an agency in our Federal Government and not have the 
appropriate features of their agency put under another, like the FBI, 
once we clean that out.

                              {time}  1830

  But other than that, the Second Amendment, it is absolute.
  All the regulations the bureaucrats make, the laws that bureaucrats 
are trying to make, the unconstitutional laws that are passed by the 
Federal Government, the State legislatures, they make our country less 
safe. Gun-free zones are the most dangerous places in our country.
  The Second Amendment is absolute, and it is here to stay.
  A recent report states that Americans own 46 percent of the world's 
guns. I think we need to get our numbers up, boys and girls.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Clyde for hosting this Special Order. I 
thank him for bringing us all together on this topic and, hopefully, we 
can shed some light to the American people and let them know that we 
are fighting against this agency and their abuse of separation of 
powers.
  Mr. CLYDE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Colorado for her 
unwavering defense of the Second Amendment of our Constitution.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Crenshaw).
  Mr. CRENSHAW. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his leadership 
on this important issue because the unelected career bureaucrats are at 
it again. They are launching attacks on our constitutional rights, the 
constitutional rights of law-abiding gun owners.
  This seems to be the sole purpose of the agency lately, attacking the 
Second Amendment. Now they want to ban pistol braces.
  Americans who don't know what a pistol brace is might have some 
obvious questions after hearing about this ban. What is a pistol brace? 
Obviously, it makes guns more deadly, right? It makes guns shoot 
faster. It makes them want to be used only by people who want to murder 
other people.
  Why else would the ATF want to ban it?
  But the Americans who actually use pistol braces know the reality: 
There is zero logical reason to ban pistol braces. It is a device used 
by a lot of disabled veterans, a lot of people I know, to provide more 
stability when shooting a gun.
  Tens of millions of Americans own this brace, but they would 
immediately become felons when this goes into effect. That is not even 
practical from a law enforcement perspective.
  Now, you could argue, actually, that the pistol brace makes the gun 
safer; it makes it less likely to shoot things they are not aiming at.
  But no, the impulsive leaders at ATF have once again failed to apply 
simple logic and reason to their decisionmaking and, instead, chose to 
apply the mindset of the authoritarian, gun-grabbing bureaucrats we all 
know that they are.
  Congress cannot sit idly by. I recently re-introduced a bipartisan 
piece of legislation that would create an appeals process for small 
business owners hurt by these haphazard rulings. Right now, the only 
recourse that exists is for these gun shop owners and manufacturers to 
sue the Federal Government in court.
  Now, for the average American, that is not exactly doable. It takes 
time and a lot of money and a lot of resources.
  My bill would put the ATF in line with every other Federal regulatory 
agency's appeal process and ensure Americans can petition their 
government for the redress of grievances and get decisions handed down 
in a timely manner.
  These taxpayer-funded, anti-gun activists at the ATF cannot continue 
to trample on our Second Amendment rights without a response from 
Congress.
  We must never cease fighting against these shameless power grabs, and 
Republican must use our House majority to protect law-abiding gun 
owners.
  Mr. CLYDE. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend from Texas for those 
inspiring words.
  I yield to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Massie), my good friend.
  Mr. MASSIE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Georgia for 
organizing this time on the floor. I think it is so important.
  We are talking about the brace ruling from the ATF. A brace is a 
firearm accessory for disabled individuals. But I am sure Biden went to 
his Attorney General and to the ATF and said, you know what, I hate 
guns. How can I take millions of them off the street, without regard 
for if they are legally owned? And how can I do it without going to 
Congress because I really don't be want to do that.
  Now, keep in mind, this is administrative law. Our Founders were 
against this type of thing because they knew that the laws shouldn't 
change with each administration.
  When Democrats controlled both Chambers of Congress and the White 
House, they didn't pass this legislation.
  This ATF rule says that gun owners have 120 days of amnesty to 
register or destroy their firearm if it has this firearm accessory. If 
you don't obey, you become a felon.
  What this administrative rule does not do is it does not make people 
safer. This ruling turns millions of law-abiding gun owners into 
criminals. Tens of millions of pistol braces have been sold in the 
United States, with the permission of the ATF, the written permission 
of the ATF.
  They are telling you to take this off, or transfer it, or register it 
like a machine gun, basically, the same paperwork.

[[Page H623]]

  If you want to turn it into a short-barreled rifle, guess what? 
Twenty-six percent of Americans live in a State where the ATF has left 
them with no option. They will create an illegal gun in their State if 
they comply with the ATF ruling in order to keep their gun.
  How much compliance do we think there is going to be?
  Well, there was a bump stock rule similar to this. There are about 
half a million bump stocks estimated in circulation; 526 have been 
returned to the government. So they have made half a million felons is 
what they have done.

  Now, Mr. Clyde has several bills to fix this. I can anticipate--or I 
believe Justice Scalia, if he were alive, I can tell you, I believe, 
based on a meeting that I had with him, which one he would prefer.
  Several of us had breakfast with Scalia, and we said, oh, Obama is so 
bad, and we don't have the constitutional balance of government. Fix 
this for us, Supreme Court.
  Scalia said, this is not my job to referee fights between you and the 
executive branch. By the way, you are the most powerful, powerful 
branch. You are Article I, and you can't--you have all the tools you 
need to stop what he is doing.
  One of my colleagues said, well, impeachment is so hard. Scalia said, 
I am not talking about impeachment. You are funding everything you 
complain about.
  So I believe that his favorite method here, and it is certainly my 
favorite method, would have been to defund this activity.
  The ruling is unconstitutional. The Second Amendment is clear. Shall 
not be infringed means shall not be infringed.
  I urge all Americans to call their Representatives and support  
Andrew Clyde's bill.
  Mr. CLYDE. I thank my good friend from Kentucky because he is 
absolutely right. We have the power of the purse.
  I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Weber), my good friend.
  Mr. WEBER of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Georgia 
for yielding to me and for his efforts in leading this fight.
  Let's get something straight. I am a proud Texan, and let me tell 
you, Texans are not happy when the government comes after their Second 
Amendment right.
  My District 14, on the Gulf Coast of Texas, has more concealed 
handgun licensees than any other congressional district in Texas, and I 
have to assume in the country, for that matter.
  The Second Amendment is extremely clear: ``The right of the people to 
keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.'' What is so hard to 
understand about that?
  But, let's face it, folks. The far left's dangerous attack on the 
United States Constitution continues unabated, with yet another example 
right here with the ATF's unconstitutional pistol brace rule, which 
bans millions of firearms with stabilizing braces.
  The ATF ruling could turn as many as 40 million Americans into 
felons, and those 40 million Americans are sick and tired of faceless 
bureaucrats trying to destroy the Second Amendment.
  Mr. Speaker, Thomas Jefferson once said, where the people fear the 
government, there is tyranny. Where the government fears the people, 
there is liberty.
  I would add, Mr. Speaker, fear the government that fears your guns.
  Mr. CLYDE. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend from Texas for those 
great words. He is absolutely correct. When the government fears the 
people, there is liberty.
  I yield to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Gaetz), my good friend.
  Mr. GAETZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his leadership and 
for yielding.
  The ATF's new rule criminalizing pistol braces is a brazen and 
unlawful attempt to usurp congressional authority. This pistol brace 
rule will fail for the same reason the bump stock rule failed: The ATF 
does not have the authority to create Federal law. Nobody voted for the 
ATF, though I know a lot of people who would vote against them if they 
could.
  This new rule will ban pistol braces on certain firearms, forcing 
users to jump through numerous hoops to comply with this new decree or 
risk becoming a felon.
  Disabled veterans and others have used these braces for years to help 
them fire pistols, and the ATF has unilaterally decided that this is no 
longer acceptable. Now, otherwise law-abiding Americans will either 
have to destroy their newly illegal firearms, or figure out how to 
comply with an arbitrary and confusing regulatory scheme outlined in 
the National Firearms Act.
  The ATF cannot be trusted to protect our rights to keep and bear 
arms. There is no timeline in which the ATF, under any administration, 
would become an ally. It needs to go. We need to abolish the ATF before 
they abolish our Second Amendment rights.
  Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms should be the name of a chain of 
convenience stores in Florida, not a Federal agency.
  I urge every red-blooded American and every conservative in this 
Congress to stand with Representative Clyde on his legislation, and to 
stand with me and cosponsor my bill, the Abolish the ATF Act of 2023. 
Let's get rid of this unlawful agency once and for all, and let this 
Special Order be considered a shot across the bow.
  Mr. CLYDE. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend from Florida for that 
is, indeed, a great statement: A shot across the bow; a great example 
of what the United States Navy would do.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Burchett), 
my good friend.
  Mr. BURCHETT. I thank Mr. Clyde and the Speaker for your service to 
our great country.
  I don't have any notes for this, but I do want to say the ATF, to me, 
is the swamp.
  Now, here we have a group of unelected bureaucrats, dadgummit, that 
have taken upon themselves to interpret a law.
  It always reminds me, when I was in Nashville one time. I was sitting 
at the Crown Plaza across the street from the Capitol with one of my 
dear friends who just passed away; his name was Tom Hensley. He was 
called the Golden Goose. He was the liquor lobbyist. I never voted for 
his bills, but he always liked me.
  He told me one time, a guy came up and threatened him that worked for 
our Governor and threatened him; and he sat there, and he chomped on 
his cigar; and he walked away and he said--Burchett, he said, you know 
what? He said, in a few more years he will be gone and the old goose 
will still be sitting here. That is exactly, exactly the mentality of 
the swamp.

  It is not like on an episode of The Simpsons where they are all--six 
people are sitting around at a table in the old cartoon, and they are 
deciding what is going on. It is a bunch of unelected, arrogant 
bureaucrats who think they know what is best for this country.
  Dadgummit, the ATF has overstepped their bounds once again. Law-
abiding Americans, law-abiding citizens, law-abiding Tennesseans should 
not be deemed criminal because of some bureaucratic whim.
  I appreciate the gentleman, thank him for his service to our country, 
thank him for this bill. I look forward to voting with him on this bill 
and being a sponsor.
  Mr. CLYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from the great 
State of Florida (Mrs. Cammack).
  Mrs. CAMMACK. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. 
Clyde) for hosting this Special Order on an important topic.
  My speech is well beyond the time I am allotted, so I am just going 
to dispense with the notes, really, and talk about how absolutely 
insane, ridiculous, and unconstitutional this new rule is.
  Not only has it been completely blown out of proportion what the 
brace is, a brace that was originally designed for disabled veterans, 
increases stability, and since 2015, had been ruled as an accessory by 
the ATF which, under their own regulations, under their own guidance, 
they said that they didn't have jurisdiction over accessories.
  So I thought that was very interesting that now we have an unelected 
swamp creature, a bureaucrat who thinks that they can now make felons--
law-abiding citizens, felons by now instituting this 120-day rule.
  A lot of people have talked about this, but few have talked about the

[[Page H624]]

economic impact this will have. Based on the NICS data that we have, 
this is going to be a $1.9 billion hit to the firearms industry; $1.9 
billion to law-abiding citizens.
  Believe me, this rule has nothing to do with gun safety. This has 
nothing to do with making communities safer. This is just a backroom 
attempt, a backdoor attempt to get at the firearm industry. That is all 
this is and nothing more.

                              {time}  1845

  This is why, Mr. Speaker, we have to pass the SHORT Act. This is why 
we have to pass the REINS Act, because the REINS Act would prohibit any 
regulation that has a $100 million or more impact to an industry to 
come back to Congress for an up or down vote.
  You can fire your Congress-critter, but you cannot fire these 
unelected bureaucrats. We need to pass the REINS Act. We need to 
absolutely stop this regulation in its tracks. It is time to, once and 
for all, let those swamp creatures know that the Second Amendment shall 
not be infringed.
  Mr. Speaker, thank you to the gentleman from Georgia and my friend, 
Mr. Clyde, for hosting this special order on such an important topic. 
Most of you have likely heard about the new rule from the Bureau of 
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, that targets 
stabilizing braces for pistols. The rule wrongly reclassifies these 
braces as ``short rifles,'' which are heavily regulated under that 
National Firearms Act. The final rule, published yesterday, January 
31st started a 120-day clock for law-abiding gunowners to destroy, 
forfeit, or register their braces with the ATF. Otherwise, the new 
regulation will consider any unregistered stabilizing pistol brace as a 
short-barreled rifle and will subject the owner to penalties of up to 
10 years of imprisonment, up to a $10,000 fine, or both.
  This is insane and it's an infringement on Americans' Second 
Amendment rights through bureaucratic rulemaking.
  For those who aren't familiar with stabilizing braces, these devices 
were originally designed with disabled veterans in mind and have been 
on the market for over a decade. Until last year, the ATF repeatedly 
stated that stabilizing braces did not convert the handguns into short-
barreled rifles. In fact, they claimed going back to 2015 that braces 
were an accessory and therefore not subject to jurisdiction of the ATF. 
But Now, bureaucrats at the ATF are changing course. By changing this 
definition, the ATF is effectively making criminals out of millions of 
law-abiding Americans when they do not register by a certain date. The 
ATF is reversing over a decade of agency guidance and rulings on which 
the firearm industry and law-abiding gun owners have relied for years. 
The ATF estimates around three million stabilizing braces have been 
sold, however, a report from the Congressional Research Service puts 
that number much higher--between 10 million and 40 million.
  If you look at just the cost--the cost of this new regulation--a rule 
put in place by unelected bureaucrats, this one rule will cost the 
firearm industry and gun owners a whopping $1.9 billion! This number 
was calculated by using data in NICS and industry data on the average 
cost of pistol braced firearms. Make no mistake. This new rule is not 
about gun safety. This is not about gun violence. This is a back door 
attempt to take down the firearm industry and make millions of law 
abiding citizens--felons. We must stop this unconstitutional overreach 
by the ATF and we will.
  The Second Amendment is straightforward--the right to bears arms 
shall not be infringed. We cannot allow the federal government to make 
it harder--or impossible--for small business owners, homeowners, and 
law-abiding citizens to defend themselves. That is why we must pass the 
Joint Resolution of Disapproval for this rule, which prevents it from 
going into effect and prohibits the ATF from implementing a similar 
rule in the future. In addition, we must pass the SHORT Act, which 
would remove the unconstitutional taxation, registration, and 
regulation in the National Firearms Act of Short Barreled Rifles, Short 
Barreled Shotguns, and those classified as Any Other Weapons.
  Finally, this is just another in a very long line of examples of why 
we must pass the REINS Act. The REINS Act would prohibit these swamp 
creatures--the unelected bureaucratic class from legislating from the 
agency rather than through Congress. The bill is simple. Any major rule 
or regulation would be required to come back to Congress for an up or 
down vote. Why? Because you can fire Your Congress-critter. But the 
big, government establishment has made it virtually impossible to fire 
these bureaucrats. Once passed, this rule would have never been allowed 
to go into effect. It's time to pass the Reins act. Time to pass the 
short act and protect our constitutional rights.
  I am proud to join Representative Clyde in introducing these bills, 
and I appreciate the opportunity to speak on the issue here tonight.
  Mr. CLYDE. Mr. Speaker, I thank my great colleague from the State of 
Florida for those encouraging remarks. I thank all of my colleagues who 
participated here in this Special Order tonight. It is incredibly 
important that we show Americans that we are united and unwavering in 
protecting and preserving our Second Amendment freedoms.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________