(José Niño, Headline USA) The Justice Department is under fire from gun rights advocates for continuing to prosecute pistol brace owners, even as it claims to be reviewing the controversial rule.
The DOJ is currently prosecuting a case in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia involving the possession of a handgun outfitted with a pistol stabilizing brace, in U.S. v. Taranto.
“This does not inspire confidence in the DOJ,” the National Association for Gun Rights (NAGR) posted on X on Sunday. “They are ‘reviewing’ the pistol brace rule and yet are still continuing to charge individuals for possessing them. This is not what gun owners asked for.”
This does not inspire confidence in the DOJ. They are "reviewing" the pistol brace rule and yet are still continuing to charge individuals for possessing them.
This is not what gun owners asked for. https://t.co/i0oKvtvrBr pic.twitter.com/UD7qyvbtBO
— National Association for Gun Rights (@NatlGunRights) April 13, 2025
In this case, prosecutors are charging a man, Taylor Taranto, for possessing a CZ Scorpion pistol equipped with a stabilizing brace.
Taranto was arrested on June 28, 2023, after the Secret Service and FBI found him near former President Barack Obama’s home.
He was allegedly engaged in “erratic behavior,” livestreamed threats about a vehicle “detonator,” and fled into woods when approached. Authorities discovered a CZ Scorpion pistol with an SBTEVO stabilizing brace in his vehicle.
He faces multiple charges, including:
- Possession of a pistol without a D.C. license
- Possession of an unregistered short-barreled rifle (SBR)
In response to this case, Gun Owners of America and the Firearms Regulatory Accountability Coalition (FRAC) have called on the DOJ to drop the charge, arguing that it sets a troubling precedent for the estimated 40 million Americans who legally own similar firearms.
Pistol stabilizing braces are firearm accessories initially designed to help disabled veterans shoot heavier pistols one-handed. Created in 2012 by SB Tactical founder Alex Bosco, the braces strap to a shooter’s forearm for stabilization. They differ from rifle stock, which are designed to be shouldered. This distinction is crucial.
If a firearm with a barrel shorter than 16 inches is intended to be fired from the shoulder, it’s considered a short-barreled rifle under the National Firearms Act (NFA), requiring special registration and taxation.
For years, the ATF allowed braces without classifying them as SBRs.
That changed in January 2023 when the Biden administration’s ATF published a 293-page rule redefining braced pistols as SBRs if they met certain criteria.
This rule, known as 2021R-08F, reclassified potentially millions of pistols, threatening owners with felony charges unless they registered the firearms under the NFA.
Gun Owners of America (GOA), the National Association for Gun Rights (NAGR), and the Firearms Regulatory Accountability Coalition (FRAC) quickly filed lawsuits against the brace rule.
In a landmark decision in 2024, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor issued a nationwide injunction, ruling that the brace rule violated the Administrative Procedure Act. Other courts followed suit, effectively blocking the rule’s enforcement.
Despite these victories, gun groups say the DOJ and ATF continue to pursue cases that rely on the same legal theories the courts rejected.
In U.S. v. Taranto, the DOJ claims it isn’t enforcing the vacated rule but is instead applying the underlying statute — the NFA —as it has always done.
In a recent filing, prosecutors wrote, “ATF is not barred from continuing to enforce the underlying statute … those determinations will naturally tend to look substantially like the determinations that would follow from applying the clear framework outlined in the rule.”
To GOA and NAGR, this amounts to a bureaucratic sleight of hand.
While the Trump administration has publicly supported gun rights and assembled a new DOJ task force to uphold Second Amendment protections, groups like GOA and NAGR are alarmed that prosecutions like Taranto continue.
“Even under a Trump administration, it appears that career anti-gun bureaucrats within ATF, along with some holdover prosecutors at the DOJ, just aren’t willing to give up their anti-gun agenda,” one GOA representative said in a statement.
The issue, GOA argues, is that the Taranto case could establish a precedent by stealth. Although the defendant faces numerous unrelated charges, including allegedly outfitting his vehicle with a detonator and fleeing Secret Service agents, GOA and FRAC emphasize they are solely focused on the NFA charge for possessing a braced firearm.
Taylor Rhodes, the Director of Communications at the National Association of Gun Rights, chimed in as well.
“The DOJ’s relentless pursuit of law-abiding gun owners over pistol braces is a blatant assault on our Second Amendment rights—rights that a federal appeals court already deemed violated by this unconstitutional rule,” Rhodes said.
He added: “Charging individuals for owning any brace, despite ongoing reviews, proves the Biden administration’s anti-gun agenda is alive and well, and we won’t stand for it.”
Rhodes stressed: “Gun owners are not criminals, and we’ll fight tooth and nail to ensure the government stops weaponizing vague regulations to strip away our freedoms.”
The stakes are high. According to the Congressional Research Service, as many as 40 million firearms equipped with pistol braces are in circulation. For their owners, the current legal gray zone is both confusing and potentially perilous.
Though the courts have enjoined the brace rule, the DOJ continues to prosecute cases using the same framework. That leaves gun owners unsure whether they’re protected under current law or one prosecutorial decision away from a felony.
GOA, NAGR, and FRAC are urging the DOJ to drop the brace-related charge in U.S. v. Taranto and abandon what they see as a selective, unconstitutional enforcement strategy.
Despite promises of review and reform, the DOJ’s actions suggest that the fight over pistol braces is far from over.
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
