By: Teresa Mull

GPM has been chronicling the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms’ (ATF) war on pistol braces. We reported last month that the ATF was already plotting with the “Biden transition team” to making regulating pistol arm braces and 80% lowers a top priority.

Firearms manufacturer Q, LLC has been placed under the bureaucratic microscope for its “Honey Badger” pistol. In early August, the ATF sent Q a letter stating that the firearms manufacturer’s Honey Badger pistol classifies as a “short-barreled” rifle simply for featuring a stabilizing brace.

Similarly, SB Tactical, another pistol brace producer, has been harassed by the ATF because of its products and been issued confusing, so-called “guidance.”

Ammoland just released part of a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request stating, in part, “[C]ertain products currently marketed and sold by SB Tactical have not been evaluated nor approved by” ATF, and, “SB Tactical ‘braces’ are being marketed as evaluated and approved by ATF … although, in most cases, no evaluations or classification have ever occurred.”

Ammoland points out that, “The letter fails to acknowledge conflicting reports that ATF officials had given SB Tactical the go-ahead to proceed with the development of new braces based on ATF’s initial decision letter.”

“It’s deeply concerning that the ATF is issuing thinly veiled threats against gun businesses like SB Tactical, Q, LLC, and law-abiding owners of legal firearm components,” Ryan Flugaur, vice president of the National Association for Gun Rights, told GPM. “Not only is the agency scrutinizing pistol braces, but they’re allegedly in talks with the Biden transition team about going after 80% lower receivers, too. These arbitrary and hostile actions toward the firearm industry and Second Amendment — which started with bump stocks and continued with threatened regulations on suppressors — could be a preview of what the ATF has in store under a Biden Administration.”

According to SB Tactical, the ATF has been providing contradictory “standards” in regard to pistol braces, and the accusations the agency is making against the company are false. SB Tactical issued a statement calling the ATF’s motives and actions “arbitrary and capricious” and is urging gun owners to contact their congressional representatives to stop the war on pistol braces.

“Gun owners should urge President Trump to put a stop to the ATF’s renegade behavior while he still can,” said Flugaur.

Teresa Mull ([email protected]) is editor of Gunpowder Magazine.

Photo from https://www.sb-tactical.com/product/sba3/