WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department announced on Friday a new rule targeting pistol attachments known as “stabilizing braces,” implementing a key move in the Biden administration’s efforts to beef up gun control regulations.
A stabilizing brace is an attachment to a pistol that functionally turns it into a short-barreled rifle, similar to a sawed-off shotgun. Such weapons are considered particularly deadly as they offer the power of a traditional rifle, but are much easier to conceal.
For decades, short-barreled rifles have been subject to strict regulations, including a law known as the National Rifle Act, which requires additional taxation and background checks for private transfers, among other provisions.
The new rule clarifies that pistols modified by a stabilizing brace are subject to those additional requirements, department officials said.
“This rule enhances public safety and prevents people from circumventing the laws Congress passed almost a century ago. In the days of Al Capone, Congress said back then that short-barreled rifles and sawed-off shotguns should be subjected to greater legal requirements than most other guns,” said Steven Dettelbach, the director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
Last year, President Joe Biden and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced they were planning measures to tackle stabilizing braces as well as “ghost guns” – a type of firearm that is assembled by users and practically untraceable.
While Democrats in Congress have pushed aggressively for new regulations of stabilizing braces, most Republicans have opposed such measures, portraying them as an infringement on Americans’ constitutional gun rights.
The new rule gives owners, manufacturers and distributors 120 days to report their stabilizing braces to the ATF tax-free. They may also remove the stabilizing brace or turn in any pistol modified by a stabilizing brace to the ATF.
It goes into effect once it is published in the Federal Register, likely next week, department officials said.
The perfect scenario?
ATF lets you register your arm-braced guns to SBR’s for free
Arm brace ruling gets struck down
Enjoy your new tax-free SBR’d guns AND enjoy your arm braced stuff.
Usual lawsuits and congressional stuff in play.
It would be nice to read the actual rule, and see if it’s written to the usual incompetent ATF standards. I’m kinda hoping if it goes through, and considering no stabilizing braces come with serial numbers, they will have to hand out free SBR tax stamps to a few million people instead.
That would be fair…. right?
Well, thats what the article is saying…you can register them for free.
And registering for a free SBR stamp is de facto acceptance that the government has the right to create a federal firearms registry, which is expressly forbidden by law. I can just see the ATF a year or two down the road using your free SBR stamp as an argument for why a judge must grant a search warrant for ATF agents to enter your home to ensure that said weapon is still in your possession. Didn’t your granddaddies teach you to look a gift horse in the mouth?
They won’t need a warrant; the NFA already gives them the right to check that your items are securely stored. It’s why some people store their tax stamp items separately from other firearms so that if BATFE comes calling they won’t have an excuse to look at your other weapons.
Jonathan,
You are spouting internet misinformation. The ATF has never had the right to conduct warrantless searches of a private residence in violation of the 4th Amendment to check compliance with the NFA. This false information keeps popping its head up every so often on gun blogs. The same people who make these claims cannot ever produce one incident where this has actually happened. Where it gets dicey though is when an FFL dealer operates out of their residence.
Here is a good article on this topic:
https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/the-truth-about-nfa-inspection/
I expect this article is no more accurate than anything else in the media, even on a good day. It’s the final rule and it’s application (assuming it doesn’t get blown away in court before it even gets applied).
I *tried* to read through the 100 page semi-final rule the ATF published, and it reads like something from the Nostradamus law school. We *might* end up with free SBR registrations with how it reads, but I’m just guessing here. The proposed forms to be used require a serial number, which pistol braces do not have. The only answer is they are registering the firearms.
As I have been told you will have to engrave the lower with the “manufacturer” which is you and then do a form 1….do you have now manufactured an SBR……
There is also confusion if you will allowed to ever change the brace to a stock since you didn’t pay the $200… so we shall see. I
They said before they were going to require a picture of the brace, so I assume they’re going to claim you can’t switch to a stock.
I also wonder about the legality since law requires a tax to be paid…
the full rule :
https://www.atf.gov/rules-and-regulations/docs/undefined/factoringcriteriaforfirearmswithattachedstabilizingbracespdf/download
Well the CPUSA/DNC here in Michigan is about to make illegal about everything I own. These idiots know with the crap sandwich they are forcing us to eat their two seat majorities in the House and Senate won T last long. They have two years to do their evil on this state.
As I write this Michigan has reached #4 on the list that people are trying to escape. If they can leave. They are. This happened the last time we had a Marxocrat idiot in office as Governor. Now you might think me harsh. But now Sister Jennifer Granholm of the Holy Sisters of Money Laundering is wreaking havoc on the nation’s energy supply. This Canadian born corruptocrat has many conflicts of interest. Like a four million dollar investment in the Green energy company she pushes to the max.
The Democrat party is a terrorist organization beholden to the New World Order. If the depth and breadth of the corruption these people are engaged in was known by the majority of the American people. There wouldn’t be enough rope to hang them all.
Davos. The guest list is amazing. Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia. Helped engineer the stolen election in 2020 and the midterm last year. Michigan Governor Greasy Gert Whitless. Gaultliter of Michigan. FBI Director Christopher Wray. All meeting in Davos planning the next pandemic. And figuring out how to take freedom from the people of the world.
These are the enemy.
You do know that Gretchen got an invitation/free ride to meet wit da KlasSwhabben and other dignitaires (like Billie de Gates) from the WEF right?
Oh yeah , Lt Gov Ghilcrest (sp) is a member b4 dagretchen.
Cheers
And Register them…..
I seem to remember that song and dance with Hitler and a few others. Just before “Amnesty turn in” and the home by home collecting them.
They say if you register your arm-braced gun it can only have a arm-brace not a stock and can not be a SBR’ unless you pay the $200.
As I understand it, the amnesty tax stamp is to own the AR pistol with arm brace only. It’s basically a new class of regulated weapons. If the pistol fails the test/checklist, you will be forced to re-register and pay the $200 tax stamp to convert it into an SBR. If you look at the actual checklist that you need to fill out, very few AR pistols with arm braces will pass the ATF’s standards. The gun will either have to be modified to meet the pistol standards or be registered as an SBR (along with the $200 tax stamp).
As I understand it, SBRs, like full auto weapons, require written permission from the ATF if you wish to take them across a state line; even if it is just to go shoot at a range or a friend’s house. Something to think about.
Fuck the BATFE.
Registration=Confiscation
Agree 100% Once it is acceptable to register one type of gun, it will be much easier to register ALL of them. I’m sure all guns will soon require registration as well (just to be sure no one owns a firearms that can be altered to become SBR later on).
Are these arm braced firearms worth the risk ? I don’t own one, so have no basis of if they are practical or just fun toys.
I expect the legal challenges will be through their first draft by the end of the weekend.
That said, with the restrictions on SBRs I would skip the amnesty idea if nothing else due to not trusting how that list may be used in the future.
Might be worth researching the folding adapters for ARs though. I forsee those getting attention in the future.
Steelheart
This whole situation just highlights my amazement at the number of people who have gone through this same process to obtain a silencer. Just who do they think is going to be at the top of the no knock confiscation crews? Oh, by the way, since we’ve decided you’re a criminal/terrorist we’re going to take all your other guns, freeze and confiscate your bank accounts and tote you off to jail in an undisclosed location with no access to an attorney. The poor J6 saps did a whole lot less. Gray Fox
No longer a Member (since about 1995) because once, I met (informally, at a non-gun event) a then Board Member of the NRA. I asked him, directly, “At what point of non-Constitutional “Gun Laws” will the Organization call for Direct Refusal/non-Compliance with said law?” He was Terrified, went into full Lawyerspeak/Porky Pig sniffing Helium mode, and Wouldn’t (couldn’t) give a straight answer. So I took my Membership Card out of my wallet, handed it to him and said, “Here, I don’t need this any more.”
UNLESS you Refuse to Comply with ANY of these non-Constitutional Acts, all the legal maneuvering, ‘lobbying’, and Internet Rantings will mean Nothing.
ATF Delenda Est.