What is an H Barrel in Maryland?

[linkstate]

Hope you’re not serious? If FSA 2013 ever gets amended, it ain’t gonna be because of anything that the antis read on MDShooters. (See above.)

You may be right, but I was serious.

 

[outrider58]

Alright, but considering that they already attempted to ban HBARs four years ago (long before I ever knew that I’d be moving to this God-forsaken liberal state), not really sure how reading my post makes a difference one way or the other. I don’t see how I’m telling them anything that they don’t already know.

Not to mention, I am sure that MGA staffers have made undercover trips to local FFLs and found themselves dismayed by all of the tactical-style rifles that they see on sale.

I'm not blaming you, but I liken this to the brace rule changes that have gone back and forth for the last few years. YouTubers could not help themselves and now here were are with that. I hope you understand what I'm referring to.

 

[MattFinals718]

I'm not blaming you, but I liken this to the brace rule changes that have gone back and forth for the last few years. YouTubers could not help themselves and now here were are with that. I hope you understand what I'm referring to.

I have to admit that I don’t.

 

[outrider58]

I have to admit that I don’t.

Some time after the birth of the fist Sig Brace, people began making YouTubes espousing their use as a legal workaround to avoid the NFA with regard to SBR(short barrel rifles). They allowed people to have an 'instant' SBR without going through the time and expense of building/buying/registering an SBR. Well, the ATF was having none of this.

Eventually, the ATF came out with a letter advising that it was not legal to shoulder the so called braces. That became the "law" of the land for a while. The YouTubers as well as TV shows backed off form shouldering in their content. Then all the hoopla from manufacturers as well as the citizenry came along.

Then came the "reversal" by the ATF, I believe by a new director(new director-new policy). The gist of which said, it was no longer 'illegal' if the brace(s) made contact with the shoulder in its use, but it was still not to be used as a rifle stock. Here's where we hanged ourselves. People seemed to hear the first part but ignored the second part and the YouTubers and TV shows went back to saying it was again legal to shoulder pistol braces, when actually, that was not what the ATF said. Something had to be done...

That brings us to where we are now. After many trials and failures, the ATF finally came up with a workable plan to finally put the pistol brace question to bed. You could either register your braced pistols during a grace period (ending 31 May 2023) and you would be granted a free registration and stamp for your braced guns or, remove the brace(s) and continue to use the guns as pistols, no shouldering allowed.

If people could have just shut their mouths and lived with the second 'clarification', all would have been good. But no YouTubers had to YouTube, forcing the ATF to flex its muscular might and we got smacked down.

That's the short version as I recall it.

 

[MattFinals718]

Some time after the birth of the fist Sig Brace, people began making YouTubes espousing their use as a legal workaround to avoid the NFA with regard to SBR(short barrel rifles). They allowed people to have an 'instant' SBR without going through the time and expense of building/buying/registering an SBR. Well, the ATF was having none of this.

Eventually, the ATF came out with a letter advising that it was not legal to shoulder the so called braces. That became the "law" of the land for a while. The YouTubers as well as TV shows backed off form shouldering in their content. Then all the hoopla from manufacturers as well as the citizenry came along.

Then came the "reversal" by the ATF, I believe by a new director(new director-new policy). The gist of which said, it was no longer 'illegal' if the brace(s) made contact with the shoulder in its use, but it was still not to be used as a rifle stock. Here's where we hanged ourselves. People seemed to hear the first part but ignored the second part and the YouTubers and TV shows went back to saying it was again legal to shoulder pistol braces, when actually, that was not what the ATF said. Something had to be done...

That brings us to where we are now. After many trials and failures, the ATF finally came up with a workable plan to finally put the pistol brace question to bed. You could either register your braced pistols during a grace period (ending 31 May 2023) and you would be granted a free registration and stamp for your braced guns or, remove the brace(s) and continue to use the guns as pistols, no shouldering allowed.

If people could have just shut their mouths and lived with the second 'clarification', all would have been good. But no YouTubers had to YouTube, forcing the ATF to flex its muscular might and we got smacked down.

That's the short version as I recall it.

Most of this history is familiar to me, except the part about YouTubers being such a significant influence on ATF's decision to issue the pistol brace rule. I'll at least admit that seeing folks such as Colion Noir and GarandThumb saying that their braced AR pistols were "essentially rifles" always used to make me wince, and I'm aware that DOJ has apparently been watching gun YouTubers for "promoting extremism" or whatever (Mr. GunsNGear had a video about that months ago).

Anyway: I don't see that situation as analogous to what we're talking about in this topic, nor do I really see how talking about the nonsensical aspects of FSA 2013 means that I'm doing us any particular harm. By your logic, none of our members should ever post pics of their MD-compliant AR-15 builds here (which many of us have done, myself included), and local FFLs should be hiding all of their tactical rifles in secret basement vaults that are not visible to anyone coming into their shops off the streets. We can't exactly hide that FSA 2013 is an AWB that has no teeth, and MGA has had 10 years now to figure that out.