According to The Reload, the agency reported that only a paltry quarter of a million weapons were registered during the four-month grace period that ended last week.
That is out of an estimated 10-40 million firearms equipped with these braces in circulation in the U.S.
Registration with the federal agency was one of the paths permitted to avoid potential criminal liability for running afoul of the new rule. The ATF arbitrarily changed the classification of pistols equipped with stabilizing braces earlier this year to make them short-barreled rifles (SBR).
As such, they are now regulated under the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA). As if the tax requirement would be the major reason lawful gun owners would not comply, the ATF waived this hurdle.
Obviously, it did not have the desired effect.
Deputy Chief of the ATF’s Public Affairs Division Erik Longnecker told the advocacy group that those wishing to register could utilize the agency’s eForms System or submit a paper application up until 11:59 p.m. (EST) on May 31.
The final tally for tax-free registration was 255,162.
Of course, owners of the now regulated weapons had the option to completely destroy their firearms to comply or physically alter the stabilizing brace to the point where it could not be reattached. They also could have simply turned their guns in to the ATF.
Longnecker admitted that the federal agency had no way of knowing how many citizens chose those routes. It was presumably a very small total — if any.
In other words, the overwhelming majority of American gun owners ignored the edict. It is being challenged in several federal cases that have already led to injunctions for certain groups of owners. Every gun group of any significance took legal action against the overreach after it was handed down in January.
It became common for gun owners to insist that they would not comply with the new ATF rule. Judging from the numbers cited by the agency, resistance to what most believe is an unconstitutional move is widespread.
Though it is nearly certain that the cause of civil liberties led most owners to disregard the regulation, the reported length of the forms involved may have contributed to hesitation as well.
Not to mention the fact that the government is compiling a registry of those who own accessories that the ATF itself previously deemed perfectly lawful.
Despite the widespread reluctance to submit to a government firearms registry, Attorney General Merrick Garland stands behind the rule. In a statement released shortly after the news broke of the change, he defended the action as necessary to solve gun violence.
“Keeping our communities safe from gun violence is among the Department’s highest priorities. Almost a century ago, Congress determined that short-barreled rifles must be subject to heightened requirements. Today’s rule makes clear that firearm manufacturers, dealers, and individuals cannot evade these important public safety protections simply by adding accessories to pistols that transform them into short-barreled rifles.”
The regulation Garland referred to is the NFA. So-called “rifles” with barrels shorter than 16 inches or shotguns with barrels shorter than 18 inches must be registered with the government under the law.
There is a $200 tax accompanying the registration, which may take up to a year to complete. Penalties for noncompliance are stiff, with conviction of having an unregistered short-barreled rifle resulting in a prison term of up to 10 years.
However, pistol stabilizer braces did not originally alter the classification of a firearm to fall under the NFA. It was 2012 when the ATF determined that the addition of these accessories did not result in this change.
In subsequent years the issue became muddled as different models of braces came onto the market. These were first designed to enable disabled veterans to enjoy sport shooting after ending their deployment.
It is highly unlikely that this unconstitutional measure will stand.
