Biden's ATF moves could turn millions of gun owners with a certain accessory into potential felons

Gun rights activists are pledging to fight a new rule proposed by the Biden administration that could turn millions of gun owners into potential felons.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives on Monday proposed a new regulation that would define a handgun as a short-barreled rifle if it is equipped with a stabilizing pistol brace, a popular gun accessory. The rule would make most guns equipped with such a brace illegal under the National Firearms Act, requiring gun owners to either register, forfeit, or disassemble their weapons or else they be charged with a felony offense.

According to one government estimate, as many as 40 million gun owners could be affected by the rule change.

"[W]hen individuals use accessories to convert pistols into short-barreled rifles, they must comply with the heightened regulations on those dangerous and easily concealable weapons," the Department of Justice said in a statement announcing the new rules. President Joe Biden's DOJ claimed that stabilizing braces "make it easy for people to convert pistols into these more dangerous weapons without going through the statute's background check and registration requirements."