Merry Christmas to gun owners! In the last few days, gun owners nationwide have flexed their muscles and made themselves heard loud and clear!
We reported on Friday how the ATF had released new ‘guidelines’ on what would make a braced pistol into a short barreled rifle — and thus an illegal firearm.
The ATF was required to publish their new guidelines in the Federal Register, and allow the public to make comments on the new guidelines.
The period for public commentary is normally 90 days. But the ATF only gave gun owners a seventeen day window — and right over the holidays.
Maybe they hoped this would slip past gun owners in the Christmas rush?
Instead, gun owners POUNDED the Federal Register, leaving more than 67,400 comments in just over five days.
Technically, since the Federal Register moderates comments, they didn’t publish the first comments to the website until Monday morning. That means gun owners put nearly 70,000 comments on there in just over two and a half days!
BOOM!
Confusion By Design
The brace guidelines as published on Friday by the ATF were a muddle of confusion. The guidelines were supposed to clear up confusion, but once gun owners got a look at them, they realized that all the ATF provided were categories — but no measurements!
They told gun owners that they would consider the following categories in deciding if a gun could be classified as a perfectly legal pistol or a short barrelled rifle: the length of pull, barrel length, weight of the gun, the eye relief of the scope, and more.
The trouble is, they didn’t tell gun owners or manufacturers what measurements were acceptable!
What length of barrel was acceptable? What weight of the gun was legal?
Sure, the ATF’s new guidelines gave the categories they would consider….but no actual measurements, dimensions, weights, etc.
Of course, this left it up to the whim of two ATF agents!
Subjective Criteria
Not only did they not include any concrete measurements to follow, the ATF guidelines also said they would include two entirely subjective qualifications when evaluating if a gun was a pistol or a short barreled rifle. Those two new criteria included how the item is marketed and how it is used in videos posted online by reviewers.
Of course, how on earth could the manufacturer be held responsible for how a reviewer decided to use their product on a YouTube video they uploaded without the manufacturers’ knowledge?
Gun Owners Sounded Off And WON BIG
Gun owners will have to stay vigilant, because this issue will surely come back. But for now, with Christmas Even only hours away, gun owners can celebrate Christmas and a heck of a victory over the ATF at the same time!