By: Teresa Mull

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), a group of unaccountable bureacrats, has already begun plotting with the “Biden transition team” to implement new gun control at the federal level, several sources report.

Despite what the mainstream media would have you believe, Joe Biden is not the president-elect. We won’t know who our next president is until December 14 at the very earliest, when the Electoral College casts its votes.

Nevertheless, Ammoland reports, “November 10th, 2020, during an ATF conference call, Acting Director Regina Lombardo told those in attendance that the anti-gun Biden transition team has reached out to the ATF to get the agency’s ‘top priorities,’” those priorities being pistol arm braces and 80% lowers.

“The ATF advocating for gun control shocks no one who’s even barely paid attention to their heinous actions in the last 30 years,” Chris Stone, Director of Political Operations for the National Association for Gun Rights, told GPM. “But what is particularly alarming is the acting director openly colluding with Job Biden and his vehemently anti-gun political team while President Trump is still in the White House.”

GPM reported earlier this year that firearms manufacturer Q, LLC has been placed under the bureaucratic microscope for its “Honey Badger” pistol.

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. The ATF’s Firearms and Ammunition Technology Division (FATD) determined, “[T]he objective features of the Honey Badger firearm, configured with the subject stabilizing brace, indicate the firearm is designed and intended to be fired from the shoulder,” after conducting a review on a sample of the Honey Badger pistol. Due to this change in classification, the National Firearms Act (NFA) must be applied to this firearm. As a result, this firearm will have a $200 transfer tax imposed on it in accordance to the NFA’s guidelines.

Curiously, starting in 2012, the ATF concluded that firearms equipped with stabilizing braces are not “designed, made, and intended to be fired from the shoulder.” As a result of this previous decision, pistol braces did not fall under the regulatory umbrella of the NFA.

Like any unaccountable government agency, the ATF is now changing the rules of the game. The arbitrary reclassification of firearms presents a huge headache for gun manufacturers, vendors, and owners alike. Unfortunately, that’s how these regulatory monstrosities work, and they will continue to operate in such a fashion unless they are stripped of their powers.

Dudley Brown, NAGR President, noted at the time that “…[T]he most popular AR-15 build is the ‘pistol brace’ version, and this Honey Badger ruling could signal the ATF is pulling the rug out from that growing section of American gun owners.”

As for 80% lowers, The Truth About Guns points out:

An 80% lower is a partially finished block of aluminum. The buyer is then required to drill and mill the lower to make it functional for use as part of a pistol or rifle. If 80% lowers are banned, would 75% lowers still be legal? How about 70%? Will we have to regulate the sale of all billet aluminum in the country in case someone decides to use it to fashion a gun?

To ban these items, the ATF would have to reverse itself, doing a 180 on scores of opinions and rulings it has been issuing regarding these items for years.

“Whom does the ATF work for?” said Stone. “It should be for the current president and the American people. Even for the rabidly anti-gun ATF this is a particularly bold move. President Trump should start firing senior ATF officials left and right.”

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