Over the last week I have had a flood of emails from clients wanting to know what I think about the ATF’s seemingly ever-changing position on the Sig brace and other similar products.

For those of you unfamiliar with the issue, let me give you a brief history.

Back in March of this year, a police officer from Colorado wrote to the ATF asking whether firing an AR pistol from the shoulder using a Sig brace as a shoulder pad would cause the pistol to be reclassified as an SBR. The ATF response, shown below, seemed to provide a reasonable response to the question.
The key parts from the letter are:

“[W]e have determined that firing a pistol from the shoulder would not cause the pistol to be reclassified as an SBR … [ATF] classifies weapons based on their physical design characteristics … Generally speaking, we do not classify weapons based on how an individual uses a weapon … Using [the Sig brace] improperly would not change the classification of the weapon per Federal law.”

This seems pretty clear right? And it certainly lead to an explosion in sales for the Sig brace.

But nothing should be taken as a given where the ATF is concerned.

Eight months later … on November 14th, the ATF responded to a request by Black Aces Tactical to classify a shotgun design with an OAL of 27 inches and equipped with a Sig Brace as a firearm not subject to the NFA. In their response, the ATF granted Black Aces’ request based upon the OAL but went on to make several comments seemingly at odds with the earlier letter.

Read the rest of the post (with embedded copies of the ATF letters) at my blog .