Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) unleashed a tirade during a congressional hearing on gun safety measures.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco and Explosives (ATF) implemented a new rule that would treat any firearm with a pistol stabilizing brace as a short-barreled rifle, which requires a federal license to own, and Jordan ranted against the measure that would force gun owners to register those weapons or face up to 10 years in jail or up to $10,000 in fines.
"So while they were doing their study they didn't count the number of braces being sold?" Jordan asked GOP witness Alex Bosco, founder and inventor of the stabilizing brace. "That's probably because [Everytown for Gun Safety] told them not to count it, right?"
Bosco declined to speculate, but Jordan said the gun safety organization helped craft the measure, which is aimed at reducing the capacity for would-be mass shooters to conceal and use deadly short-barreled weapons.
"They were talking to them all the time, putting this all together, going after people who support the Second Amendment," Jordan said. "How many Americans do you think it is total? I've heard estimates as many as 40 million Americans could be impacted by this."
Bosco, who got the idea for his product after going shooting with a wounded veteran, said the Congressional Research Service estimated 10 million to 40 million Americans own stabilizing braces like those he sells.
"Unless you remove the brace, lengthen the barrel, turn in or destroy your firearm or register your gun with this government that you know you can trust because Mr. Wilcox has been working with them," Jordan said, referring to Everytown's federal legal director Rob Wilcox. "Unless you do those four things, what happens? What are you? A felon. A felon for something 10 years ago they said was just fine, that you built a business on, a business that you started because you wanted to help a man who put the uniform of his country on his back and served our country and was injured, and now they're going to put you out of business and make people felons. But don't worry, Everytown USA and Mr. Wilcox has been working with our government to implement this to target Americans who support the Second Amendment -- such a deal, such a deal."
"That's why we need legislation to say this rule doesn't -- we need to pass that legislation," he added. "That's what we do need to pass this law now, based on what has happened with this organization."
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