Nobody was surprised to learn that only a very small number of braced gun owners went through the hassle of filling out an eForm 1 for braced pistols they had during the just-ended “amnesty” period. Before the “grace period” for registrations ended on May 31st, the ATF claims to have received little more than a quarter million applications, according to The Reload.
A million and a half? According to various estimates, between 10 and 40 million Americans are estimated to own handgun stabilizing braces. Less than three percent of the gadgets have been registered, according to basic government math.
Sincerely, I registered mine as an Illinois resident who consistently tries to act as a sore spot for Governor J.B. Pritzker and Attorney General Kwame Raoul. Nothing would make the governor and attorney general happier than to watch a video of someone like me being perp-walked on the Chicago TV news due to gun charges.
It wasn’t simple. Some of my fellow Illinoisans who were required to have a C&R license in order to own SBRs gave up trying to complete the confusing registration form. Sincerity be damned, it took a couple of pals working together and hours for me to finish my registration, but I believe I’ve finally gotten the hang of it.
From The Reload:
The ATF told The Reload on Friday it has received just over a quarter million applications to register pistol-brace-equipped firearms…
That number represents just a fraction of the braced guns believed to have been sold in the decade since the ATF first classified a version as outside the scope of the NFA. In the impact assessment for the rule, the ATF estimated that three to seven million devices exist. However, the Congressional Research Service puts the number much higher at somewhere between 10 and 40 million.
That puts the registration rate for pistol-brace-equipped guns at between .6 percent and eight percent.
Longnecker noted that owners of the affected guns could also comply with the rule by either dismantling the firearms and destroying the braces or turning them over to the ATF. He said the agency does not know how many Americans may have taken those routes.
Feel free to chime in with your experience doing the eForm 1 — or not — in the comments below.