The ATF Pistol Brace Rule - The letter you all need to see

The very act of registering your AR Pistol as an SBR could subject you to criminal prosecution. It's time to do what we can about it. Here's something you can do NOW to help stop the ATF Pistol Brace rule.

Oh yeah, Welcome to the first episode of The 2 Alpha HamRadio Podcast.

The Letter:
My name is Bob Brodovsky and I am a retired Law Enforcement Officer and constituent from Twin Falls Idaho. I am writing to you today to express my concern over the ATF’s newly published pistol brace rule and the huge risk of entrapment this exposes tens of thousands of our fellow Idahoans to as well as millions of law abiding Americans throughout the USA. As you may be aware, the ATF recently published a rule deeming handguns equipped with a pistol stabilizing brace to be short barreled rifles. GOA (Gun Owners Of America) estimates over 40 million of these braces are currently in use by law abiding citizens. Through this new ATF rule, over 40 million people are now in possession of short barreled rifles. Possession of an unregistered short barreled rifle carries the same penalty as possession of a machine gun.

Now ATF has offered a 120 day grace period and amnesty to all owners of brace equipped pistols to register them as SBR (short barreled rifles) using their form 1 application. Normally an applicant of a form 1 item, will submit the application prior to building or acquiring the NFA item. Mere possession of the unregistered NFA item subjects the applicant to a felony prosecution. ATF has stated to GOA that it will use enforcement discretion (meaning they will look the other way) while an estimated 40 million applications are processed in the next 120 days. ATF rules on applications and backgrounds state after 88 days after submission, if a background has not been completed the application is denied. Normally, the applicant is not in possession of the item and a dealer can resubmit or work it out on the back end. Example: In March of 2022, I purchased a suppressor for my varmint rifle. I paid for the suppressor, filled out the application, paid for my $200 tax stamp and as of today January 20th 2023, ATF still has not processed my application. The difference here is that the dealer is in possession of my NFA item after nearly 1 year of waiting.

Based on the current volume and wait times for application processing and ATF backgrounds there is no possible way the ATF will be able to process 40 million new applications from otherwise law abiding people who are already in possession of a newly deemed NFA item within ATF’s 120 day grace period. So what happens to those people who submit evidence of their felonious possession of a SBR after the 88 day background rule, and 120 day amnesty period are over? What happens to these people when after the 88 day period passes and their application is automatically denied, yet they are already in possession of this NFA item? I learned that the president of GOA spoke to an attorney at the ATF this week and was told in this case, enforcement action will eventually happen. That means, millions of people (gun owners) can be prosecuted under federal law using the very photographic and written evidence they submitted to the ATF.

Now here in Idaho, maybe a few of the lucky ones can get their applications processed and then enjoy their 2nd amendment rights, but think about this, States like California and New York do not allow any NFA items. What happens to those people? If they submit a Form 1 and somehow get approved, they are now felons in their state. This has far reaching implcations.

So why am I writing you today? Congress has the ability to stop this blatant entrapment scheme. The ATF is supposed to follow the law that congress enacts. The ATF is not supposed to make laws on it’s own. I urge you to bring this to your fellow members of congress and end the pistol brace rule. It is unconstitutional, will surely be challenged in court, but more urgently is designed to entrap good citizens in an no win scenario.

Thank you for your time,