…And the hits just keep on a coming…. isn’t it 2024 yet?
Today, January 13, 2023, right on schedule, three days away from the SHOT Show in Vegas, and in line with all of the other anti-gun measures currently underway in the White House, the Justice Department along with BATF has announced they are submitting a new rule/law/sanction/decree/mandate/edict/instruction/dictate/declaration with new requirements for possessing “Stabilizing Braces.” Yes the same wrist braces for pistols they previously said were fine. But that was way back when ole Shotgun Brandon wasn’t in office.
This announcement (short description- stabs are bad and need to be reeled in) of course comes on the heels of a Federal Court this week smacking down their very similar administrative law about Bump Stocks, which were also previously legal and sanctioned by BATF…until they changed their mind. Anyone see where this new stabilizer rule is headed? Anyone? Check your road maps and commute time via Waze to the courthouse.
Photo Credit: ATF.gov
The beef with wrist braces on pistols, is DOJ and BATF now say they convert some pistols, like AR based pistols, into short barreled rifles (with barrels less than 16”) which are covered under the National Firearms Act, and have specific registration requirements for ownership, must be registered with the BATF, and a tax stamp paid.
This time around, to make gun registration and control more “palatable” they won’t charge the $200 tax, to keep what you already own, but owners will have still to register their “new” short barreled rifles with the BATF E-Form 1 within 120 days of the new “law” being published in the Federal Register, which reports administrative rules of the fed government.
If you have never seen a volume of the Fed Register, think of a set of thousands of rules published each and every year the government is in operation. Words to snooze by, but necessary to keep the government…well…the government.
The Federal Register publication will probably show up in Feb-Mar of 2023. The E-Form 1 is available on the BATF website at ATF.gov along with a 17 page explanation how to fill it out as well as how you will be obtaining and sending your fingerprints in as well. Simple right? They just change their minds and say “This is the way…now.”
BATF and DOJ says nothing in the rule bans stabilizing braces, or the use of stabilizing braces on pistols-or more frustrating to those agencies, how you shoot a pistol with a stabilizing brace. They say they are OK if they are “objectively designed” or help disabled people, or just not obviously made to be shouldered like a rifle. You know, no fooling around…real wrist braces.
The BATF missive says you have to either register your short barreled rifle or “the short barrel removed and a 16-inch or longer rifle barrel attached to the firearm; or permanently remove and dispose of, or alter, the “stabilizing brace” such that it cannot be reattached; or the firearm is turned in to your local ATF office. Or the firearm is destroyed.”
Photo Credit: 80lowers.com
Oh, how the ATF offices will have to “brace” for all the guns and stabilizers which will be turned in. They could be inundated by citizens who suddenly want to get rid of their previously sanctioned legal firearms based on this new opinion. Sure.
DOJ has had this in the works all year, and had to put up a notice of the proposed new rule for public comment back in June. They received 237,000 public comments. Pretty sure they received zero comments stating “You guys are great. Keep up the good work. Love ya.” Yes, just another example of an agency ignoring the citizenry and Second Amendment rights.
The new final rule can be found at: www.atf.go/rules-and-regulations/factoring-criteria-firearms-attached-stabilizing-braces
You had to know when FJB put Dettlebach in charge, and he made it through the Senate, that this kind of thing was going to happen. He’s an anti-gun pig of a lawyer who desires the complete disarmament of citizens. If he has to chip away at it a piece at a time, he is only too happy to do so.
The whole SBR thing has been tenuous since AR format pistols first started appearing a decade ago. I suspect the end goal is to get more people to register their AR pistols with ATF so they can come back at a later date and attempt confiscation, just as I believe that is the intent of the registration here in Illinois for all ‘assault weapons’.
Exactly! Every one of these “regulations” that requires registration is just an end run to create an illegal gun registry. And what they register, they confiscate.
Odds are this will be blocked even before it’s effective date. I know I will not be in a hurry to register mine.
The upside is I can put a traditional collapsible stock on mine if it is indeed registered as a SBR. I guess I better renew my C&R license!