Cape Gun Works Owner Sees Liberation Day On the Horizon

July 15, 2026
3:41 am

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Cape Gun Works owner Toby Leary isn’t just watching the Supreme Court docket—he’s reading it like a roadmap to restored rights. When the justices agreed to hear the case that could finally dismantle the federal pistol-brace rule, Leary framed the moment as “Liberation Day” for millions of law-abiding owners who suddenly found themselves felons overnight. His Civil Rights Coalition has spent years documenting how the ATF’s reclassification turned ordinary braced pistols into regulated short-barreled rifles without any new legislation, a move that bypassed Congress and ignored the plain text of the National Firearms Act. By spotlighting the human cost—veterans, disabled shooters, and competition shooters who relied on the brace for practical, not criminal, reasons—Leary turns an abstract legal fight into a tangible civil-rights issue that resonates far beyond the gun community. The timing couldn’t be more consequential. With a 6-3 conservative majority and recent Bruen and Rahimi decisions signaling renewed scrutiny of “sensitive places” and “common use” tests, the pistol-brace case offers the Court its clearest chance yet to re-anchor Second Amendment jurisprudence in text, history, and tradition rather than agency whim. If the justices strike down the rule, the ripple effects will reach far beyond braces: expect renewed challenges to the Hughes Amendment’s machine-gun ban, suppressor tax stamps, and even the very definition of “rifle” versus “pistol.” Leary’s optimism is therefore strategic; he’s betting that once the Court reasserts that the people—not bureaucrats—define what arms are in common use, the entire post-1934 regulatory house of cards begins to wobble. For the broader 2A movement, this moment underscores a shift from defensive litigation to offensive restoration. Groups like Leary’s are no longer content to slow-roll infringements; they’re forcing courts to confront whether decades of administrative gun control can survive constitutional review. Should the pistol-brace rule fall, expect a cascade of deregulatory lawsuits that treat the Second Amendment as a normal constitutional right rather than a second-class privilege. In that sense, “Liberation Day” isn’t just rhetoric—it’s a forecast that the judiciary may finally start unwinding the century-long project of turning an enumerated right into a heavily regulated permission slip.

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The timing couldn’t be more consequential. With a 6-3 conservative majority and recent Bruen and Rahimi decisions signaling renewed scrutiny of “sensitive places” and “common use” tests, the pistol-brace case offers the Court its clearest chance yet to re-anchor Second Amendment jurisprudence in text, history, and tradition rather than agency whim. If the justices strike down the rule, the ripple effects will reach far beyond braces: expect renewed challenges to the Hughes Amendment’s machine-gun ban, suppressor tax stamps, and even the very definition of “rifle” versus “pistol.” Leary’s optimism is therefore strategic; he’s betting that once the Court reasserts that the people—not bureaucrats—define what arms are in common use, the entire post-1934 regulatory house of cards begins to wobble.

For the broader 2A movement, this moment underscores a shift from defensive litigation to offensive restoration. Groups like Leary’s are no longer content to slow-roll infringements; they’re forcing courts to confront whether decades of administrative gun control can survive constitutional review. Should the pistol-brace rule fall, expect a cascade of deregulatory lawsuits that treat the Second Amendment as a normal constitutional right rather than a second-class privilege. In that sense, “Liberation Day” isn’t just rhetoric—it’s a forecast that the judiciary may finally start unwinding the century-long project of turning an enumerated right into a heavily regulated permission slip.

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