Griffin: ‘Congress didn’t grant President Biden’s ATF the authority to impose such a broad and sweeping mandate on Americans, and we’re asking the Court to immediately block it’
LITTLE ROCK – Following his filing of a multistate lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice, Attorney General Tim Griffin issued the following statement:
“The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) new ‘stabilizing braces’ rule is unlawful. For more than a decade, these braces have been sold as firearm attachments not subject to regulation. Stabilizing braces were designed to help people with disabilities use pistols, and they have become increasingly popular with senior citizens. The rule, however, affects most pistol owners, as many lawful gun owners use stabilizers to mitigate firearm recoil and enhance accuracy. Congress didn’t grant President Biden’s ATF the authority to impose such a broad and sweeping mandate on Americans, and we’re asking the Court to immediately block it.”
About the Biden Administration’s Rule
The Biden administration’s rule departs from existing ATF regulations that authorized firearm manufacturers and the public to use pistol stabilizing braces without federal regulation. This year, President Biden ordered the ATF to abandon more than a decade of established practice to instead treat pistols with modified stabilizing braces as “short barreled rifles” subject to the National Firearms Act. This rule would require an owner of a pistol equipped with a stabilizing brace to pay a $200 fee and submit their name and other personal information to the Department of Justice or face criminal penalties. A coalition of state attorneys general is suing to protect citizens from this blatant federal overreach. To read the Biden administration’s rule, click here.
About Attorney General Tim Griffin
Tim Griffin was elected Attorney General of Arkansas on November 8, 2022. He was elected Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas on November 4, 2014, and was re-elected for his second four-year term on November 6, 2018. From 2011-2015, Griffin served as the 24th Representative of Arkansas’s Second Congressional District. For the 113th Congress, he was a member of the House Committee on Ways and Means while also serving as a Deputy Whip for the Majority. In the 112th Congress, he served as a member of the House Armed Services Committee, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Griffin is a graduate of Magnolia High School, Hendrix College in Conway and Tulane Law School in New Orleans. He also attended graduate school at Oxford University. Griffin has served as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve, Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps, for over 25 years and currently holds the rank of colonel. In 2005, Griffin was mobilized to active duty as an Army prosecutor at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and served with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault in Mosul, Iraq). He is currently serving as the Staff Judge Advocate (SJA) for the 81st Readiness Division at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Prior to his current post, Griffin served as the Commander of the 134th Legal Operations Detachment (LOD) at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and a senior legislative advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness at the Pentagon. Colonel Griffin holds a master’s degree in strategic studies from the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. He also served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas and Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Political Affairs for President George W. Bush. Griffin lives in Little Rock with his wife, Elizabeth, a Camden native, and their three children.
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