Brandon’s video does a good job navigating the bullshit, and there is no other way to describe the 293 page behemoth that seeks to end the ‘brace menace’ once and for.. yeah, it’s not going to do that. The ATF’s attempt to turn pistols into SBRs because *wink* ‘the shoulder things that go up’ is a mess from a bunch of angles.
One of the most common things I’ve been asked is, “Should I register?”
The Legal Answer
By a strict interpretation of the law, yes. You should, because it is now the law. Despite this not being debated and passed through the House, the Senate, or signed by the President, it is the ‘Law’ now. Is the law made up and the points matter less than the final score of Whose Line is it Anyway? Also, yes.
Your actual answer…
Is ultimately up to you. Plenty of folks have declared their intent to not register anything and ride out the legal battle, and in their defense the likelihood this gets the great judicial ban hammer the way the bump stock ban did is high. Ultimately this is day 1 of 120, you don’t have to decide anything today. You can see if the rule gets stayed by the courts or congress in the interim.
If you decide to free stamp a gun or two, go for it. If you want to ride it out and decide in May what to do and see what happens in the meantime, cool. As long as the initiation date on your Form 1 is May31st, 2023 or earlier I’d love to see the ATF try and prosecute that case. A first year public defender could wipe the floor with that case and add a win against the ATF to their resume early.
My opinion…
Is only an opinion, I am not an attorney. I know a few though.
I, personally, already own NFA items, have an FFL/SOT, and had a few guns I wanted to stamp when I got around to it. So I got around to those on the EForms site, it’s pretty easy. But if you don’t want NFA items, you have at least until May 31st before anything else will be or can be done about it. That assumes that none of the lawsuits I expect to see immediately filed don’t get the rule boxed up and/or stayed in the 120 days, or thrown out completely because its entirely overstepping the authority of the ATF even if the Administration told them to do it.
Remember, this is rule ATF2021R-08, it took them two years just to get it into a state that could be published as a final rule to even attempt to survive the gauntlet of legal challenges heading its way.
Sit back and enjoy the shitshow, ladies and gentlemen.
