I have seen various estimates of the percentage of pistol brace owners who have complied with the new BATFE rule that deems braced pistols to be subject to prohibition or registration as Short Barreled Rifles (SBR) under the National Firearms Act (NFA).
The most defensible estimates seem to be around 2.5% compliance. The most generous estimates come in near 8% compliance, while other estimates come in as low as .6% (yes, 6/10ths of one percent).
Nobody really knows for sure, but whatever numbers you believe, it seems apparent that there is wholesale noncompliance. This just proves the old adage that stupid laws breed disrespect for the law.
We know that just over 250,000 braced pistols have been registered as SBRs. The Congressional Research Service estimates(embedded below) that there are between 10 and 40 million pistol braces in private ownership in the U.S. Suppose half of the high number, or 20 million, is correct. Suppose half of those owners have become compliant by destroying their braces, surrendering them to the BATFE, attaching a 16″ upper to a braced lower, or other means. Yeah, right. That’s a stretch.
Given the remaining pool of 10 million brace owners and 250,000 who registered SBRs is what gets us to about 2.5% overt compliance.
That gets us to 97.5% NONcompliance. Thus, stupid laws simply breed disrespect for the law. In this situation, this breeding makes mosquitoes look slow and unsuccessful.
What? Not concerned as long as you are allowed to possess your over-and-under shotgun for bird hunting? Just wait for the administrative rule change declaring your favorite fowling or trap and skeet gun to be a trench gun and, therefore, a “destructive device” subject to felony prosecution for possession. Need only your bolt-action rifle for deer and elk hunting? Watch as those are administratively declared to be “sniper rifles” and suddenly quite illegal to possess.
There is a reason why this fight over pistol braces is essential and why the BATFE’s ability to turn millions of lawful gun owners into federal felons with the stroke of an administrative pen is an unacceptable hard crossing of a double-yellow line.
It will be interesting to see how this wholesale noncompliance with the BATFE’s pistol brace rule plays out. That and magazine capacity, semi-auto function, “safe storage,” mandatory insurance, forced reset triggers, key cards, bump stocks, [firearms ID cards, pistol purchase permits], and more. Stay tuned. It is getting spicy.
Best wishes,
Gary Marbut, President
Montana Shooting Sports Association
www.mtssa.org
Author, Gun Laws of Montana
www.MTPublish.com
Congressional Research Service Handguns, Stabilizing Braces, And Related Components
About Montana Shooting Sports Association
The Montana Shooting Sports Association (MSSA) is the primary political advocate for Montana gun owners. For more information, visit: www.mtssa.org.
No respect for Brandon’s feelz!
Rules are not “laws.”
….and just because something’s a law, don’t make it legal… . . . . .
In another epic win for the 2nd amendment today the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philidelphia ruled 11-4 that persons convicted of a non violent felony can Not be denied the right to own a firearm. Reported by Reuter’s news service. US cannot ban people convicted of non-violent crimes from owning guns-appeals court (msn.com)
They can’t ban violent felons that have served their time and not on parole or probation either, but this unconstitutional government does it anyway.
They can’t ban 15 year old gang bangers from owning firearms either, apparently Be a good person and take your chances. Remember the old Western movies where the Bad Guys had served their time in prison. On the way out the prison gate they were given their property back- including the guns. That’s how justice used to work. Make a minor mistake, pay your debt to society and carry on with your life. If you start hurting people, then we can’t trust you in our world, you hang. That’s how it works when the government stops working.
Every free, non incarcerated American citizen is exactly that, a free American citizen and is due every right that is guaranteed and written into law in the constitution of the United States of America. The atf and every gun/citizen banning goon, lawyer, politician, enforcement personnel, judge and civil authority who has infringed upon any free American citizen’s right to keep and bear arms is guilty of tyranny and treason. Both tyranny and treason are capitol offences and are worthy of capitol punishment’s under the law. This IS one of those instances where reparations should at least be thought about. How… Read more »
I could be wrong, but there are more of us than there are of them and the MORON n’ Chief will not be there to protect them forever!
and….establish effective neighborhood overlapping fields of fire……
with good backstops
Stupid ‘laws’? Rules AREN’T ‘laws’. It would be more accurate to state that ‘stupid RULES breed CONTEMPT’.
More correct to say that any “law” that violates the constitution is VOID
“Did you really think we want those laws observed?”… “We want them to be broken. You’d better get it straight that it’s not a bunch of boy scouts you’re up against… We’re after power and we mean it… There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals one makes them…Ayn Rand in “Atlas Shrugged”
soon enough they will show for a raid and people will dissarm or kill them strip them and tar them out of state goverment people doing criminal things time to clean house is at hand
Hunter Biden says they’re not gun laws; they’re suggestions.
Ahahahahahahahaha
Now that’s good humor & truth.
Does anybody think coughing up pistol braces is going to shut these leftist Goobers up?
They’ll dream up something you won’t comply with. Now or eventually. Consider it “peak” conformity.
That’s a shit load of up votes, Ope…
Shall not be infringed means just exactly that. Should any one of the 40 MILLION American citizens be attacked by the atf, they should get on social media and their phone to alert everyone. Anyone in the same zip code or county should respond. It should not take long before the atf realizes they are vastly outnumbered and placed in the deadly “L”. The atf has a history, a criminal history, of murdering people or having them murdered by other agencies so, any time the atf shows up, you are in peril. Sooner or later the atf is going to… Read more »
Deplorable Bill — Whoa. That’s about the coolest, most admirable comment I’ve seen on here in awhile….
That 250,000 just wanted the “free” registration of an SBR. Of course, “free” comes with strings, as in, “Now we know where 250,000 of them are.”
“Free”, as in without cost, violates one of the laws of thermodynamics.
Every action has a cost. The only way to create order in a system it to increase the disorder outside the system by a greater amount.
Those people might have acquired a “free” stamp, but at a cost to them of greater value than any government issued permission. The possibility that they might not be aware of the cost or perhaps deny its existence does not make it less real.
Not a brace on t-shirt.
About like we should have expected.
https://hudsonvalleyone.com/2016/07/07/massive-noncompliance-with-safe-act/
https://freebeacon.com/issues/gun-group-3-percent-californians-assault-weapons-registered-latest-gun-law/
One problem with making predictions, especially about the future (Yogi Berra) or in this case about failed gun laws, is that the press and/or the search engine companies don’t want us to know.
So even estimates from New Jersey, Maryland, and Hawaii are apparently made of unobtainium.
Nevertheless, I think even a blind pig could find this particular acorn.
America’s gun owners, in overwhelming numbers, don’t give a flying f**k what gun laws government passes.
They serve and “govern” at our consent. The only powers they have are those we grant. We concede what we wish, and are free to change our minds.
I was going to do a AR pistol build, bought the brace and a lower but put the project on hold when the ATF proposed their rule. Still have some of the parts I assembled. I’m not breaking the law. I don’t have a AR pistol with a brace attached. But I do have a brace that may now be essentially useless kept no where near the lower which will now likely end up as a rifle.
Under ATF’s interpretation having a shorty upper (or even barrel) without an actual pistol to put it on is considered “constructive possession.” If you have pistol lower and a brace that fits, that is also “constructive possession.” Doesn’t matter if you’ve separated brace and lower, question is whether you have effective control of both. I’m not a lawyer and I have not consulted any on this – but my understanding is that “constructive possession” is based on theory that there is no reason to possess parts if you don’t intend to put them together. In this case you had legal… Read more »
I have been dodging NFA pitfalls while playing their tax stamp game for 25 years, and the creep of “constructive possession”, already weak wjen first applied to drugs, has become particularly weak and bad law when applied to firearms. Trying to claim I legally have control and possession of a pistol at home, and a brace at another location xxx distance away, at the same time is untrue, tyrannical, and very bad misuse of the law. There is a presumption of “eminence” necessary in trying to wedge firearms into constructive posession laws. Or else, for example, I have a gun… Read more »
BULLSHIT! 99% of them removed the brace so they did not have to register.
Funny how we did not see bulshit like this when Traitor Trump banned bumpstocks
Shut up dummy.
It is difficult to stand, but if we let him communicate, then we will see the lower limit of the “Smart/stupid” curve.
Yes, I recall him, well.
Haha, yeah; so as to say …see the perimeters of the metric…
Where ya been Wild Bill?
Haven’t seen you much lately…
Sometimes I go without gracing the page with my infinite wisdom, too. ….but I’m still reading. … actually, I’ve seldom been reading the articles… Few n far… I’ve been just going straight to the comments to see what everyone has to say…
I can relate. We have been pretty busy with a terrific first hay crop; one of our furry children passed away; and we received two others. Just fitting in the new and preparing for SHTF day.
I see that ant fa Europe have been giving classes to ant fa (CONUS). So it could be a hot summer. Target cities as yet unannounced.
I hope that you all are preparing, too.
Wild Bill — Yea. Life comes at you full speed…
Loss of a true friend is hard.
…..and to what’s coming…
“Fail to plan, plan to fail.”
~a wise ole drunk I once knew
Been preparing for that day for decades. It is patently obvious to me that this will go down as the last means the constitution provides for We the People. Too bad, but it appears there is no other way………
We have only been at it for 12 years, but we are getting there.
Yeah, you go ahead and run with that. There’s a whole sh*tload of “will not comply” citizens out here. Someday there might be a knock on your door, and it won’t be your buttbuddies from the ATF, it’ll be one of us.
Please don’t behave like the left. No need for calls to violence against others for simply disagreeing. @AZ did not and is not threatening you – there is no call to threaten him!
In any case, if you take away his ability to whine online, he will only become more likely to become violent. Even in cases like shooting in Greenwood Mall (???) where Elija Dicken’s swift action terminated the shooter — other innocent people died. Swift resolution is to be applauded, but prevention is a far better approach.
Oldvet — fight fight fight fight fight!!!!!!
Oldvet, yeah; maybe watching it every night, the characters have rubbed off on me…
I agree that it is likely many people complied through reconfiguration. This just shows that SBRs would be far more common if not for legal restrictions – thus we count not only the 40M but must consider how many did not get AR pistols out of anticipation that ATF would eventually crack down. 40M SBRs means they are common enough that courts need to strike SBRs from NFA. Also shows how meaningless this gun control action is, despite all the leftist’s self-congratulations. It did not reduce number of guns, instead having some made more powerful by use of longer barrel… Read more »
And now you have an ar pistol and probably an unused ar rifle stock in your inventory. PRESTO! constructive intent.
It just doesn’t end, until “We the people” make it end.
TDS much ? The SCOTUS corrected that and will correct the brain dead idiots BS also . Unlike you with brain dead Biden I did not agree with every thing DJT did as president . But you rubber stamp everything that the braindead idiot does . FJB and AZ Lefty .