Thread by @StephenGutowski

The ATF announced a proposal yesterday that would outlaw the vast majority of guns with stabilizing pistol braces. There are estimated to be as many as 40 million currently owned by Americans. thereload.com/biden-admins-p…

The ATF's proposal creates a point system for determining whether a gun with a brace is illegal or not. It uses objective measures like weight or length but they are often based on arbitrary decisions about whether the gun can be fired with one hand. thereload.com/biden-admins-p…

The agency gives specific examples of how they would apply the points system to braces which implies the vast majority of the 40 million already in civilian hands would be illegal. That leaves owners with few options to avoid committing a federal felony. thereload.com/biden-admins-p…

Americans who own guns equipped with the braces can, in some cases, remove and destroy the braces. Otherwise they will have to register their gun with the ATF and pay a $200 tax or turn their gun into the agency. thereload.com/biden-admins-p…

For perspective, the Small Arms Survey estimates all American law enforcement agencies combined have about one million guns. The lowest estimate says there are at least 3 times that many stabilizing pistol braces owned by civilians. The highest estimate puts it at 40 million.

The ATF created this issue in 2012 when it approved the first pistol brace for sale outside the National Firearms Act (NFA). It then issued a series of often contradictory rulings in the years since as the devices exploded in popularity.

Now the agency is trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube. It's arguing nearly every brace is actually illegal and the concept is just a way of exploiting a loophole in the law. It's solution would likely result in millions of new felons. thereload.com/biden-admins-p…

The proposal faces immense backlash from gun-rights groups who plan to organize comment campaigns against it once it is actually published in the federal register. If it makes it through public comment, the group's already plan to file lawsuits as they did with the bumpstock ban.

There isn't a great estimate for how many braces are actually out there. The ATF puts the number at between 3 and 7 million. The Congressional Research Service puts the number at between 10 and 40 million. There's no way to know for sure.

My best guess is 3 million is way too low and 40 million is way too high.

Here's the ATF's response to my questions on the proposal. They weren't able to answer most of them but did provide insight into where the one-handed-firing standard comes from.