MSR Pistol Designation In Doubt?

[LRRPF52]

Big picture is with the ATF acting like it does and what the law says about SBRs, manufacturers and consumers took risks producing and buying these braces. I personally have shied away from them because of that. I hesitate to say it on a public forum, but I doubt anyone could truthfully say the Grendel pistols they built weren't designed by themselves to be shouldered with an "arm brace". I know what I see when I see people shooting pistols at the range.

Edit add: Also, remember that the Dayton shooter used a pistol. No one in the public probably knows, but perhaps he was shouldering it. Which could lead to interagency politics.....

The stabilizing pistol brace grew out of a solution to the unique challenges of AR15 pistols.

SB Tactical worked with the ATF in advance to get the approval letter for the first brace, which was the SiG Brace.

The problem with most AR15 pistols was that the Receiver Extension Tube protrudes to the rear, so people were wrapping them in foam, neoprene, whatever to make it more comfortable against their arm or cheek.

The SiG Brace made it easier for people to stabilize the pistol since it was designed as a stabilizing brace.

ATF Firearms Technology Branch evaluated the SiG brace and blessed-off on AR15 pistols equipped with the brace as pistols under the law, not SBRs.

SB Tactical went through this process with all of the stabilizing braces, including Q’s Honey Badger pistol brace.

There are now at least 4 million stabilizing braces in circulation on various AR15 and other pistol actions.

You can’t build “intent of use” as a criminal clause into a product accessory, especially after the ATF signed off on these products when attached to AR15 pistols.

I personally don’t shoulder my pistol brace, because I don’t shoulder regular rifle stocks. I don’t even place buttstocks in the deltopectoral groove on my body because I then have to bring my head to the gun.

I was raised and trained to bring the gun to my head, and if your stance is the way mine is, you would have to cant your head over to the side in order to get a good sight picture when bringing the firearm up into the position where it is aimed.

My buttstock or stabilizing brace placement is inches away from my shoulder, so again, if someone claimed that I intended to shoulder any pistol or carbine, I can demonstrate anatomically how that argument falls apart. Maybe someone else intended to shoulder their brace-equipped pistol. In 2017, ATF stated that they can’t regulate intent and that someone shouldering a stabilizing brace pistol isn’t changing the design of these braces by doing so, nor could they prosecute them for behaving in that manner.

Another thing that pistol stabilizing braces really did for consumers was provide a solution for people with disabilities and smaller statures, especially women and youth.

Since the ATF ensured that the length of pull measurement was under a certain distance as to preclude these from constituting a Short Barreled Rifle, the compactness of a pistol wasn’t compromised.

If you listen to the owner of Q, he stated that before the ATF sent him the cease and desist letter, they changed the standard by which length of pull is measured by taking their ruler from the trigger to the bottom tip of the stabilizing brace on the Honey Badger, rather than to the rear that is inline and parallel to the bore, so there is something going on with the Boston field office where they appear to have a vendetta or peculiar “get Q” campaign going on within that office (which is the one that Q headquarters in New Hampshire is subject to).