His advice? Remove the brace from your firearm to comply with the law and avoid registration.
In an interview with Breitbart News, Clyde issued a clear warning over the intentions of the federal government concerning these handgun additions. His belief is that the ATF wants a national list of gun owners, and the registration requirement is just another way to reach that goal.
It was Jan. 13 when the ATF officially announced its long-awaited stance on pistol braces. These devices were invented to assist disabled veterans in continuing to be able to enjoy sport shooting and have grown in popularity with the sporting public.
Short-barreled rifles have the distinction of being under much more stringent regulations than long-barreled rifles. The ATF’s new rule specifically designated that weapons with barrels under 16 inches and featuring a brace are now classified as SBRs.
This rule was published on Jan. 31, and stipulated that those with rifles or pistols featuring the stabilizer devices have 120 days to register them. There are options for the gun owner to comply with the federal rule.
The brace may be permanently removed or altered so that it cannot be reattached to the firearm. A barrel longer than 16 inches may be added, the braced weapon may be registered with the ATF, it may be turned in to the local ATF office, or it can be destroyed.
For Rep. Clyde, the ATF created a ridiculous situation. “It is so outlandish that the ATF is doing this. They have violated the law — they have violated the constitution, which is law. I am confident this stabilizer brace rule will be shot down and I don’t want it to take six years.”
There are, of course, strong legal challenges to this federal overreach. However, Clyde clearly said he does not want people to put themselves in legal jeopardy by ignoring the new regulation.
“In the meantime, I don’t want people to run afoul of the ATF, because they have the resources of the government and individuals generally do not have the ability to withstand those kind(s) of resources brought against them.
In other words, it’s likely a losing proposition to butt heads with the federal government while legal recourse is being pursued.
Clyde added that his recommendation is for law-abiding citizens to remove the stabilizer braces, which puts them in compliance with one of the options afforded by the ATF. That action also keeps them out of the federal database he believes is the purpose for the new rule.
The representative told Breitbart News that the ATF’s registration process is clever. Each owner of a braced pistol would themselves create a digital profile and register the firearm through eForms. As Clyde noted, this process “is not just that the ATF is trying to register gun owners, but they actually have the gun owners do the work for them.”
He called the ATF action “unconscionable” and asserted that “people shouldn’t willfully assist them in doing what is wrong.”
Of course, this new rule is simply another constitutional overreach by the federal government to usurp personal liberties granted by the Second Amendment. Politicians and federal agencies clearly lack the authority to achieve their ultimate goal — to ban most if not all firearms — so they are steadily ripping away parts of the freedom until it becomes meaningless.
And for all their denials of wanting a federal database of firearms owners, one of the results of the new ATF rule is exactly that. It is not a coincidence.
