Checking The Ol’ Calendar

You might notice that it is August, meaning we only have five months left in 2022 and summer is almost over. The local schools go back a week from Wednesday and I am already getting emails about Labor Day sales. 

It also means that a month I have been watching for is finally upon us, August of 2022, because this is the month that I expect to see the final ATF regulations regarding pistol braces being issued. I mentioned this in January, Braces And Receivers, and we already got the final and extremely confusing rule on receivers so now it is pistol brace ruling time. For more details see: Tick Tock, Watch The Clock.

What I expect will happen: most AR/AK pistols with stabilizing braces will be reclassified as “short barreled rifles” and become “NFA” firearms which requires a Byzantine series of paperwork and of course an additional fee in order to own one. I would expect some sort of grandfathering but we will see how that works out. 

I also anticipate hearing a lot about these AR/AK pistols from the media and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a mass shooting involving one to hit the news just in time to coincide with the ruling. 

Of course braced pistols are not more dangerous than a carbine length AR, in some ways they are even less lethal because of reduced muzzle velocity especially if the barrel is less than 10.5″ but that won’t stop anyone. I watched a Congressional hearing the other day where some dimwit Dem claimed that the pistol brace on the buffer tube transformed it into a bump stock. Thomas Massie of Kentucky scorched the guy but he wouldn’t back down and kept claiming that pistol braces had this magical effect on ARs even though they don’t interact with any moving parts on the firearm. 

Remember I keep telling you were are in the golden age of firearm buying but that won’t last much longer.