In case you have been under a rock for the past few days, the ATF dropped their 293-page final rule on pistol stabilizing braces.
The good news is that they dropped the whole ludicrous proposed “Form 4999” point system brought up in last year’s proposed rule. The bad news is they just went ahead and said basically all braces, if they are fitted to a pistol, are short-barreled rifles, which can bring 10 years in federal prison if not registered correctly.
The options for the estimated 4-40 million braced pistol owners as outlined by the ATF include destroying the firearm, registering it on an e-Form 1 during a 120-day window with a waived $200 tax stamp, removing (and destroying) the brace itself, turning the firearm over to your local agent, or turning the pistol into a rifle with a 16+ inch barrel.
Expect lots of lawsuits on this one once it hits the federal register.
To illustrate the silliness of the whole thing, Ian McCollum over at Forgotten Weapons, weighs in on how the pistol brace issue intercepts the SBR regulations of the 1934 National Firearms Act, boiling it down to the regs on SBRs fundamentally being “a nonsense law that is left over from an attempt at legislation that didn’t actually happen.”
By Michael Crites
Michael Crites has served as executive editor of AmericanFirearms.org since 2016 and previously held positions as associate editor and range correspondent dating back to 2000. He discovered his passion for precision shooting at age 12 during his first visit to his grandfather's shooting range, eventually earning an Expert classification in three different shooting disciplines before age 18.
During his studies at University of Wyoming, he earned four varsity letters on the collegiate rifle and pistol teams, serving as team captain for three consecutive years. He became the first UW student to complete the NRA Range Safety Officer certification while maintaining full-time student status. He graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in Sports Communications.
His diverse career has included roles as Range Safety Coordinator for the National Rifle Championships in Camp Perry 2001; editor-in-chief, Precision Shooter Quarterly; series editor, Modern Firearms Handbook collection; managing editor, National Shooting Sports Foundation Newsletter; editor, Competitive Shooter Magazine; operations director for Western Arms & Ammunition Co.; senior editor for the Shooter's Reference Annual (Cheyenne); content director for The Firearms Report, published by the American Shooting Coalition in Billings, MT; firearms correspondent for Hunting & Shooting, produced by Outdoor Sports Media Group in Jackson, WY; and publisher for Wyoming Shooting Sports Journal in Casper. He has contributed as a regular columnist for American Rifleman (NRA Publications), technical editor for Precision, a publication of the National Bench Rest Shooters Association (Phoenix, AZ); and as firearms specialist for the Gun Owner's Annual.
As a digital content creator, he has written more than 400 articles on AmericanFirearms.org, developed shooting technique coverage for the Brownells Shooting Blog (Montezuma, IA) and Federal Premium "Range Notes" platform (Anoka, MN), and served as lead content strategist for International Defensive Pistol Association (Berryville, AR). Beyond Tactical Firearms, his current endeavors include content development for the Wyoming State Rifle Association (Cheyenne, WY) and technical manual production for High Plains Publishing of Laramie, WY.
He has contributed to the 12th, 13th, and 14th editions of Modern Sporting Rifles Guide and edited The Complete Guide to Tactical Shooting and Competitive Shooter's Reference Manual (Gun Digest Books).
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