LogFAQs > #954891213

ATF just released their new guidelines for arm braces. For those who don't know, arm braces are a device that (usually) replaces a stock on the back of a firearm which can be used to strap the gun on to the forearm instead of bracing against the shoulder. They were invented so you could use something like a pistol carbine with one hand, which can be especially useful for someone with a physical disability. However, an arm brace can ALSO be used like a stock, but it was NOT CLASSIFIED as a stock, so it didn't cause legal issues for firearms where a stock would turn them into an SBR or assault weapon.

Now, these first started rolling out, like, 2 years ago and people immediately pointed out that these were a loophole in the regulation. What was the ATF's response?

"Yeah, they're fine".

Well, with the green light, companies started pumping these suckers out and, from what I've heard, there's easily more than a million of these braces on the market.

Flash forward to now, and the ATF has finally decided that these "arm brace" things actually need to be regulate for all the reasons people were already well aware of. They've released an extremely arbitrary point system checklist for determinig whether an arm brace is illegal or not. This point system effectively bans nearly all of the arm braces on the market, immediately turning probably over a million of gun owners into "felons" overnight.

tl;dr ATF bungled regulation on a firearm loophole and now millions of illegal firearms exist. Why should you care? Well, you should:

1. Be pro-gun and realize this arbitrary behavior is a gross mistreatment of gun owners via either over-reach or utterly inept communication and organization.

2. Be anti-arm brace, and realize that the ATF's inaction has led to an uncontrollable number of these products existing on the market.

3. Be pro-regulation, and realize that this kind of agency malpractice is precisely the kind of thing that creates distrust in regulation and drives more moderates into the camp of anti-regulation.

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'Cause you know that I have no fear, ain't gonna walk into the river and disappear. I'm gonna be a powerful man. Red blood running down the broken sand.