This is the ATF. They are not your friend. The permissions they give you are based on a nothing more than an opinion which so happens to carry the weight of law.
So why have they been so cool lately? Your sig brace can be legally shouldered now, yipee! Double triggers are legal, whooo! Thank you ATF for giving us the simple pleasures of life in the form of half ass full auto and a half ass butt stock. Thank you SOOO MUCH ATF.
This is the ATF. Why do they care? Why are they permissive for NFA leaning workarounds?
The mind wonders.
Nine years from now they release a new statement. Your pistol is in violation of the NFA and braces are no longer legal.
“It is in the opinion of the ATF technical branch that the sig brace and similar products attempts to get around the spirit of the law and constitute a NFA item.”
“Because we at the ATF are nice guys, we will give you six months to stamp your pistols and get the paperwork over to the office… you know, because we are nice guys.” – signed Heywoodjablome ATF Goon.
There it is. Suddenly you have a few options. Register your pistol and pay a $200 dollar tax, buy a barrel and convert it to a rifle, destroy the sig brace, or become a felon. That’s *if* the ATF gives us all those options.
If they can form an opinion that “once a NFA item, always a NFA item” then we should be much more pessimistic.
If that’s the approach they take, then they have a strong hand. They just need to get a serial number from your AR’s manufacturer and check to see if that rifle was shipped in pistol form with a brace.
At this point in the future, AR pistols have proliferated into the millions… and this is just ARs we are talking about. Think of all the other sig braced designs that have debuted over the years.
Register? Never! “I BUILT MINE. NO PAPER TRAIL” you scream! You jump online to search for a barrel to convert your AR into a rifle. Suddenly everything is sold out. The shelves are barren. The new “opinion” caught the industry off guard and there aren’t enough barrels to keep up with the sudden demand.
The ATF form 1 doesn’t run out of stock, and the stamp costs around the price of the barrel.
Checkmate.
Welcome to the registry friend.
Having a few million addresses, fingers, and pictures on file plus several million in the treasury would sure look good to any democrat in office.
“The good ATF giveth, the good ATF taketh away.”
Excellent post. I wonder how much of a friendly kerfuffle such a sudden change could precipitate. I wonder if the opinion-maker wants such a friendly exchange of unkind actions, for good or ill. So much to wonder about.
Also, how can an un-elected department voice opinions that have the force of law? I thought the Magna Charta, Glorious Revolution, American Revolution, etc were a long march to stop such abuses. Did I just wake up Van Winkle’s slumber?
Your close but you are off on one point. Past experience is the street sweeper was declared a destructive device. There was no $200. The stamp is free you just need to file the paperwork. With a less friendly administration this will happen to AR pistols at some point, unless NFA rules are changed. Elections have consequences.
Nothing gets people to argue quiet like the ATF or NFA opinions / legal decisions.
As someone with about 20 NFA items .. the registery is in the form of the old way of doing business as a Gun Trust.
As a resident of a state that allows hunting with a suppressor .. for now (poly’ticks matter) .. and .. with a tax stamp (for now; re: hearing safe act) .. I pay very little attention to the ATF .. why? .. because I have never met one & all of my local LEO type’s don’t ever 1) know the law 2) care about the ATF rules 3) never ask me about my paperwork / legal status.
The only time it matters is if you make it to a court of law after the fact.
So .. I used to travel with an AR Pistol with Sig Brace on my CCW permit. Not as much anymore though. And I understand the ramifications of justified use .. make your own choices accordingly.