Massive Noncompliance: ATF Says Only 250,000 Braced Pistol Owners Registered Their Guns

Original article here

In news that comes as a shock to no one, only only a tiny handful of braced pistol owners jumped through the hoops of completing an eForm 1 for braced pistols they owned during the just-completed “amnesty” period. According to The Reload, ATF says it received just over a quarter-million applications before the “grace period” for registrations closed on May 31st.

A quarter million? Various sources put the number of pistol stabilizing braces owned by Americans at between 10 and 40 million. Doing simple government school math, that means less than three percent of the devices have been registered.

Candidly, as an Illinois resident who continually does his best to act as a burr under the saddle of Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Attorney General Kwame Raoul, I registered mine. The Gov and the AG would love (l-o-v-e) nothing more than to see film of someone like me perp-walked on the Chicago TV news on firearms charges.

It wasn’t easy. Some of my fellow Illinoisans had a C&R license (required for Illinois residents to possess SBRs) but gave up on the daunting registration form. Frankly, it took teamwork from a couple of friends and hours for me to complete my registration, but now I think I finally have the process down.

From The Reload . . .

The ATF told The Reload on Friday it has received just over a quarter million applications to register pistol-brace-equipped firearms…

That number represents just a fraction of the braced guns believed to have been sold in the decade since the ATF first classified a version as outside the scope of the NFA. In the impact assessment for the rule, the ATF estimated that three to seven million devices exist. However, the Congressional Research Service puts the number much higher at somewhere between 10 and 40 million.

That puts the registration rate for pistol-brace-equipped guns at between .6 percent and eight percent.

Longnecker noted that owners of the affected guns could also comply with the rule by either dismantling the firearms and destroying the braces or turning them over to the ATF. He said the agency does not know how many Americans may have taken those routes.