SB Tactical pistol stabilizing brace
Travis Pike for TTAG

From SB Tactical . . .

Today, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has issued a Final Rule “Factoring Criteria for Firearms with Attached Stabilizing Braces.” 

Under this rule, owners of some firearms with Pistol Stabilizing Braces will be forced to choose between registering their lawfully owned, brace-equipped firearms and taking other drastic action such as surrendering it to the federal government, destroying it or facing criminal liability. The real-world impact is to make it more difficult for law-abiding gun owners to exercise their fundamental rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. 

“Under the disguise of safety, the ATF is targeting law-abiding firearm owners, particularly those with different physical needs, with an unnecessary and unlawful infringement of rights,” said Jeff Creamer, president and CEO of SB Tactical. “We will not simply sit back and watch this happen.”

SB Tactical pistol brace arm
Courtesy SB Tactical

Millions of firearm owners will be unduly and unfairly impacted by this Rule, therefore SB Tactical, in conjunction with the Firearms Regulatory Accountability Coalition, Inc. (FRAC) and its members, intends to take every action necessary to hold the ATF accountable and ensure that they remain within the boundaries of the law. 

“This is not a small issue the Biden administration has chosen to attack with such a legally-questionable course of action,” said Travis White, president and CEO of FRAC. “Experts have estimated the economic impact of this Rule could exceed $10 billion, and the Congressional Research Service has placed between 10- and 40-million pistol braces in private ownership. If this administration is willing to target such a large body of law-abiding Americans for no real public safety benefit, it must be prepared to deal with the legal and electoral consequences.”

Much the same as the gun owners impacted by this Rule, SB Tactical is only today getting its first look at the details. The company’s experts and legal counsel are examining the Final Rule and will announce a response and next steps in the coming weeks. In the meantime, all companies opposed to this gross regulatory overreach are encouraged to join FRAC. To learn more, visit www.fracaction.org.

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50 COMMENTS

    • Hopefully any such braces one has acquired were thru secondary retailers, such as in bundled assembly kits.

      Another good reason never to register unless absolutely necessary; even if a particular agency genuinely wished to use such information for only legitimate purposes, a database is always vulnerable to hackers with nefarious intent. I mean, look at all the credit card and crypto exchange “leaks” there are all the time. Sheesh.

    • Not sure why everyone is concerned about this data breach. Worst case scenario is the data breach was ordered by or given to the atf. That does not do anything except give them a list of doors to knock on and be told to “get bent, unless you have a search warrant”. Possession of a brace does not constitute a crime as you can have it attached to a >16 inch rifle and still be perfectly legal (unlike the rule change that occurred with bumpstocks), so a search warrant would be extremely difficult to obtain because you bought a brace. Due to the bumpstock ban being overturned and epa v West Virginia case being decided this “rule” change will fall flat on it face when they first judge hears it.

      • “…this “rule” change will fall flat on it face when they first judge hears it.”

        That really depends on the court that hears it… 🙁

      • The NSA records everything you do. This is not a paranoid delusion. It was documented several years ago. They record EVERY phone call and text message that is sent. People don’t know as much about the NSA because they are worried about the FBI, CIA and ATF. Where do you think these organizations get their info from?

        • Yes, they do collect calles, 10s of billions of them.
          And they have no way to organize that information. And they can’t get that information in a timely manner. To anyone who asks, if they have the information in the first place.

  2. Every single firearms manufacturer that produces and sells braced guns should be pouring money into fighting this arbitrary illegal “rule.” Don’t see that happening though.

    • Kinda hard to give money to a legal fight that might drag on for years, when you just had the legs cut out from under you financially. They’ll be lucky to make payroll a month from now.

    • Kim just
      right you are. it pisses me off that all these companies , gun, ammo, accessories don’t openly contribute to the fight for our rights and their livelihood. they can surely afford it.

  3. if I have to register a braced pistol as an SBR, why would I keep the brace? I might as well use a regular stock.

    So, if the law isn’t stopped by the courts, l’ll simply throw away the braces.

    if I actually feel the need, l’ll Form 1 a few and use regular stocks.

    • Theoretically you may get a “free” registration. Whether or not the brace becomes an SBR as well (think sear/host setups) is another question entirely.

      • There is a disturbing level of ambiguity in the ‘ruling’, that they will be happy to use *against* us, I’m quite certain.

        I really hope we get, at the least, for the time being, an injunction against this crap… 🙁

        • Looks like a trap, and gAyTFE has zero authority to suspend taxes on stamps.

          All manner of hinky looking shit going on.

      • They’re redefining the brace as a stock. The receiver is the firearm that’s registeted, not the stock. Machine gun sears, trigger packs, etc, can be registered because the law defines them as machine guns in and of themselves..

    • If you SBR a firearm it becomes an NFA weapon subject to who can use and possess. It is also subject the “Mother May I” written requirement to move locations or cross state lines.

    • @Mad Max

      “So, if the law isn’t stopped by the courts, l’ll simply throw away the braces.”

      No, you can not “simply” throw them away. If the ATF has a record of you purchasing them or finds out about you having them, and you did not register, if they ever show up it will be with a search warrant because they will have probable cause to think you have an unregistered weapon. You will need to prove, beyond reasonable doubt, these braces were destroyed in such a manner so they could never be used again and if you ‘simply’ throw them away (e.g. into the trash I guess you mean here by ‘simply’) they can possibly be used again by anyone that chooses to pick them up thus you will have ‘unlawfully’ distributed an unlawful thing.

      Ya kinda need to think like the ATF here – they are doing their masters bidding and that master wants American citizens (gun owners in this case) continually persecuted in any manner possible and arrested and jailed at all possible so the ATF gets ‘creative’ in their reasoning. A sort of ‘locked away in a rubber room insane defies logic and reason gonna make you suffer serial killer’ creative reasoning but they can make your life hell based on semantics and what they think.

      • and this is why I never bought an AR pistol. I’m not giving the ATF their foot wedged into my door way. Something told me this is what they’d do..later.

      • Barring the inevitable injunction against this ridiculous overreach, a brace may still be placed on any rifle, or used on an SBR, or rotated amongst said items in your collection ad lib, so as long as you own at least one item which legally accepts them (to be super technical) or none at all, why would anyone destroy them and how would having purchased one establish probable cause for a warrant or search in any way for this still legal item? All of this ridiculous hoop creating is general harassment of gun owners and charge stacking incidental to other crimes, not a master plan to kick in your door for a plastic brace.

    • “Weren’t they just recently slapped over the bump stock thing by the court?”

      A court, in *one* district, not the one that counts, the SCotUS… 🙁

      No impact on all the other districts… 🙁

    • Laws only matter to us little people. They get a ruling saying they can’t do something and the next week they do that thing and claim it’s alright. Feds gonna fed, jackboots gonna jackboot.

  6. What’s the muzzle break on that coyote “pistol”…

    Fuck it, I’ma call it a rifle. Fuck with me and leave my dogs out of it.

    And what cans are compatible? I only have one YHM setup but I’d like something smaller and that gun looks fucken sexy.

  9. They don’t care if it’s legal or constitutional. There will never be real “legal [or] electoral consequences”. Oh sure, we may have a slightly 2a-friendly SCOTUS right now, but the bureaucrats in Washington will continue to infringe in any/every way they want and won’t be sent to prison for violating the law, they won’t even lose their jobs. The best we can hope for is occasional rollbacks of this or that regulation.

    Real change would be SCOTUS opining the ATF and the NFA and other infringements are entirely unconstitutional, but that will literally never happen.

  10. Per the new rule:

    “In contrast, material on a firearm that extends the rear surface area of the firearm toward the shooter but is required for the cycle of operations, such as an AR-type pistol with a standard 6 to 6-1/2 inch buffer tube, may be an indicator that the firearm is not be designed, made, and intended to be fired from the shoulder.”

    Standard pistol buffer tubes are 7.25” long – Meaning anyone who just de-braces may still have an SBR because LOP may indicate it’s intended to be shouldered? Are they arbitrarily and capriciously defining standard carbine length buffer tubes as stocks?

    Also, re-barreling an imported pistol means a 922R conversion must also be completed. So imported AKs just lose the brace completely.

    AR’s that want to remain pistols should replace the tube with one shorter than the 6-6.5 “overall” length, since they don’t indicate where to measure from. Spikes slick pistol tube is on option less than six inches long.

    Sights? Does a small peep sight turn a pistol into a rifle?

    Finally, congress has some leverage here:

    
    U.S. will hit its debt limit Thursday, start taking steps to avoid default, Yellen warns Congress
    cnbc.com
    (https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/13/us-will-hit-its-debt-limit-thursday-start-taking-steps-to-avoid-default-yellen-warns-congress.html)

  11. I sort of suspect that the real intent here is to start jamming people up for allowing their family “access” to an “SBR” that family members are not supposed to have access to.

    Kid grabs a “SBR” with a brace and pops a home intruder. Shoot’s good but NFA violation and multiple family members are facing 15 years, 5 for the NFA, 10 for tax evasion.

    How many people are going to remember to get a trust, put these things in the trust and make all of their family members Trustees so that their new NFA toy doesn’t have to be put in a separate safe with only the owner knowing how to get into that safe?

    I’d get a trust, Form 1 it for a legit stock and have a real SBR for whole-family use. If enough people do this there’s no way the ATF can handle the paperwork, delays ensue and lawsuits become a real weapon.

  12. It’s effing BS. AR pistols that were purchased as an AR pistol, such as a Springfield Saint 300 AAC pistol become worthless as their intended purpose, to travel with for effective defense.
    You have to submit an application to the ATF to take a SBR across state lines!!
    So if I had such a firearm, since I live 10 miles from the Idaho border and a little over an hour from Montana, should I want to take my RV and travel, I essentially can’t now.

    The ATF can sk my mf Richard.

    • The legal niceties are all aligned in such a way that one might suspect the ATF wishes to make “braced pistols” (and anything that they might call such) such a PITA to own that most people won’t bother.

      Personally, I kinda doubt this is the whole story. While certainly a feature rather than a bug, I suspect they’re hoping to prey mightily on those who make mistakes as a form pursuing political vendettas. Weaponizing the NFA against those who never really wanted an NFA device in the first place allows them to go after their political adversaries since the statistical overlap of owning such a gun and not voting appropriately will be quite high. As a method of sowing confusion such that they scare people away from buying a type of gun it’s just kind of a bonus.

      There is, of course, the question of what other future actions they might have planned which may lend credence to the idea that they intend to use arbitrary and capricious *cough* “interpretation” *cough* as a way to try to suppress gun ownership overall but at this point I’d say that it’s likely meant to go after people who have a high likelihood of voting the wrong way as well as going after their families.

      “…it’s just one more way of reducing your liberty, and reminding you that they can fuck with you anytime they want.”

      • “…I suspect they’re hoping to prey mightily on those who make mistakes as a form pursuing political vendettas.”

        Possible, but risky, for them. A government generating real anger animosity can backfire on them.

        Example, I can see prosecutions of that sort resulting in a SCotUS decision ruling that SBRs are counter to the ‘Bruen’ ruling, and SBRs outright stricken from the NFA entirely. I suspect Thomas would have no problem with doing that, as a way for him to impress that the 2A means what it says about ‘infringement’…

        • Does it seem to you that they worry about the potential of generating anger for the demonstrable fact that they’re holding straight up political prisoners? That they’re destroying your currency? That they’re importing people to replace your kids? That they’re lying about everything so openly that it’s the admissions of truth that become surprising?

          You think they fear you? LOL! That’s cute. Pull the other one, bells and whatnot.

          When you go after your political enemies you don’t care about “generating anger”. Statistically their family doesn’t like you anyway. Besides, you’re gonna lock up or have an excuse to kill half of the fam anyway if this works, so fuck ’em.

          Until you start paying attention to how these people think and how they actually exercise political power you’re gonna keep getting bent over and hoping a court comes to the rescue.

          Yeah, I ain’t here to talk it out man, fuck a dialogue
          I’m an enemy, you want a friend? Go and buy a dog.

        • to strych9

          “You think they fear you? LOL! That’s cute. Pull the other one, bells and whatnot.”

          Yes I do really believe they are terrified of us. Which is why they want to disarm, the entire civilian population.

          The problem is they don’t know, and they won’t admit this in public, they can’t identify which cop or soldier, will put a bullet in their head, when they try to use deadly force, to enforce their demands.

          They don’t hate cops or soldiers despite what they say in public. They are afraid of what they can’t see inside a man’s heart. Because a righteous man will patiently wait. Until the time is right to strike out in public.

  13. How can atf tax anything not being part of treasury anymore? Makes the whole thing seem more illegaler than it already was.

  16. Please, contact your representatives and let them know that we don’t approve of this “rule” and expect them to do something about it. A good start would be to defund the ATF.

    If they receive 40MM contacts or even 1MM that would send a serious message. Takes only about two minutes to write an email.

  17. The irony of course is that SBR & pistols are arguably less deadly than longer rifle barrels as muzzle energy tends to be much lower.

  18. I mean, sure Biden’s ATF is going after pistol braces, reclassifying them as stocks. And of course they’ve also gone after 80% lowers claiming a hunk of aluminum is a gun even if it’s filled in. And yes, Biden himself has said he’s coming after your ARs and AK, repeatedly making foolish claims about how 9MM will blow the lungs out of the body and an AR is only useful if your deer wear kevlar vests…..

    But have you heard about how bad OrangeManBad is?!?!? No Democrats are trying to restrict your rights, all gun control comes from Republicans.

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