By Tanya Metaksa
What’s New— Colorado: The Democrats’ two bills were brought to the House floor for votes on March 19. Georgia: SB499 passed the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee; Hawaii: Two red flag laws are on this week’s legislative agenda; Kansas: HB2501 passed the Senate with a 37-3 vote and now moves to Governor Laura Kelly; Kentucky: Two bills are progressing—HB78 and HB312; Maryland: Hearings on anti-Second Amendment bills took place this past week; Minnesota: The Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee held a hearing on March 13, regarding gun bans; Pistol Brace Updates: ATF enforcement leaves millions of brace owners in renewed legal uncertainty.
State Legislatures
Legislatures adjourned sine die: Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
State legislatures not in session: Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, and Texas.
Colorado: Democrats rushed the two following bills to the House floor for votes on March 19. SB26-004 expands Colorado’s already dangerous red flag law by adding health-care facilities, hospitals, and co-responding teams to the list of people who can petition courts to seize your guns. SB26-043 makes it a crime to sell or transfer a barrel unless the sale or transfer occurs in person through a federally licensed dealer. HB26-1126: The Gun Store Annihilation Act would force every gun store in Colorado to keep a running registry of every customer who buys anything.
Georgia: SB499, which removes firearm suppressors from the list of dangerous weapons, has passed the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee.
Hawaii: Expanding red flag laws is on the legislative agenda this week. SB2517, a constitutionally concerning expansion of Hawaii’s red flag laws, will be reviewed by the House Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee. On March 20, HB2062, the appropriation needed to fund red flag law promotion, was before the Public Safety and Military Affairs Committee.
Kansas: HB2501, passed the Senate 37 – 3. It now proceeds to Governor Laura Kelly.
Kentucky: HB78, which strengthens protections from lawsuits for the firearms industry, passed the House and is awaiting action in the full Senate. On March 19, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on HB312, which creates provisional carry permits for 18-20-year-olds.
Minnesota: The state legislature is in full gear on anti-Second Amendment bills. On March 13, the Senate Judiciary Committee limited testimony from Second Amendment proponents to two bills, even though they included eight bills on their list. Six bills were passed in the Judiciary and Public Safety Committee and now go to the Senate for a vote.
SF3836 enables a data retention system for Right-to-Carry permit data, making that information available to the public.
SF3661 bans the building of firearms for personal use.
SF4200 reenacts a ban on binary triggers
SB3655 bans gas-operated semiautomatic firearms and magazines holding more than 10 rounds. Those who possess such firearms must register them for a fee and re-register them every three years. These firearms cannot be used for hunting.
SF3572 bans having a firearm inside a vehicle in a school drop-off zone or parking lot.
SF2320 allows governments to ban firearms in buildings they own or lease.
Virginia: The Virginia legislature adjourned. All anti-Second Amendment bills are awaiting Governor Spanberger’s signature.
Pistol Brace Updates
Attorney Tom Grieve just posted a YouTube video explaining that, although a federal court vacated the ATF’s 2023 pistol brace rule, the ATF is still treating many brace‑equipped pistols as unregistered short‑barreled rifles under existing laws and continuing enforcement against some owners.
Core point
In a recent filing in the Gun Owners of America v. Garland pistol‑brace lawsuit in Texas, ATF told the court that while the brace rule is “dead,” the underlying National Firearms Act (NFA) and Gun Control Act (GCA) provisions remain in effect, and ATF has not changed its interpretation that many braced pistols are SBRs. ATF also acknowledged in that filing that it continues to enforce NFA/GCA requirements against “some brace-equipped pistols,” meaning owners can still face felony exposure despite the rule’s vacatur.
Backstory on braces and the rule
Originally, in 2012, ATF sent initial letters to gun owners stating that braces do not convert a pistol into an SBR. Later, it issued clarifications regarding shoulder stocks, and in 2023, during the Biden administration, it implemented a brace rule that effectively classified most brace-equipped firearms as SBRs requiring registration. Although millions of braces are in circulation, compliance with the “free registration” window remains very low (single-digit percentages), and lawsuits that followed led to a 2025 ruling vacating the rule and a joint dismissal in the Mock v. Garland case.
What ATF is arguing now
In this case, GOA seeks to prevent ATF from using the now‑vacated rule’s criteria to classify braced pistols as SBRs, but ATF argues that the case is moot because the rule no longer exists, and GOA’s challenge was filed under the Administrative Procedure Act. ATF maintains that, regardless of the rule’s status, it still has delegated authority to interpret and enforce the NFA/GCA, and it has continued to do so with certain braced pistols, which it considers irrelevant to whether the APA challenge is now moot.
Practical implications
In practice, this leaves millions of brace owners in renewed legal uncertainty because ATF is effectively saying, “the rule is gone, but our interpretation isn’t,” and courts cannot use this APA case to block ATF’s ongoing enforcement decisions. To explain the court strategy, Grieve uses a sports analogy to illustrate that lawsuits are designed for specific goals, and GOA’s suit was narrowly focused on the rulemaking process rather than on the underlying statutory interpretation itself. Because of that strategic framing, ATF now argues that, once the rule was vacated, GOA lost standing to seek broader relief, which in turn allows ATF to uphold and enforce its pre‑existing interpretation of what counts as an SBR.
