The Wire · CalGunHub

Government drops Mock v. Bondi appeal, leaving brace rule vacated nationwide

Published July 17, 2025 · Updated October 12, 2026

A joint stipulation dismissed the government's Fifth Circuit appeal, leaving ATF's stabilizing-brace rule vacated nationwide and unenforced.

Written by the CalGunHub desk from public reporting

Who this affects: The vacated federal brace rule is not enforced anywhere, including California, and the proposed rule would only remove the vacated text from the federal regulations. California's own definitions of short-barreled rifles under state law are unaffected. Federal classification of individual firearms remains possible case by case. This is general information, not legal advice.

On July 17, 2025, the parties filed a joint stipulation to dismiss the government's appeal in Mock v. Bondi, Fifth Circuit No. 24-10743 (Dkt. 80), and the clerk's order granting dismissal followed on July 25, 2025 (Dkt. 82), per the docket. The dismissal leaves standing the Northern District of Texas's nationwide vacatur of ATF's stabilizing-brace rule in Mock v. Garland (June 13, 2024) and ends the litigation. The 2023 rule (88 FR 6478, "Factoring Criteria for Firearms with Attached Stabilizing Braces"), which had treated many braced pistols as NFA short-barreled rifles, remains vacated, and ATF's public page states the rule was set aside nationwide and has not been enforced. As the latest development, on May 6, 2026, ATF published a proposed rule, "Removing Factoring Criteria for Firearms with Attached Stabilizing Braces" (91 FR 24453), proposing to formally remove the vacated regulation from the Code of Federal Regulations. ATF retains case-by-case statutory classification authority.

Informational only, not legal advice. Facts are attributed to the sources listed above.