Can I Use an Airsoft Buttstock on a Real Ar15?

banshee 9mm pistol — AR platform pistol with a pistol stabilizing brace

By Emily Taylor

Since 2013, the Bureau of Booze, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) estimates that over 3 1000000 stabilizing braces, or pistol braces, have been sold in the U.S. With over a dozen designs bachelor on the market, they are mostly meant to exist used with AR-15 style pistols. Pistol braces are devices meant to improve the shootability of big-format, intermediate caliber pistols, without shouldering them with a stock.

Putting a stock on a pistol would require the possessor to have registered the item with the ATF in accordance with the National Firearms Act (NFA), since it would make the particular a curt-barreled rifle (SBR)—this also means paying a $200 tax stamp and going through an enhanced vetting process (see 18 UsC. § 921(a)(8); 26 U.S.C. § 5821).

Pistol braces have drawn much more attending from the public recently, every bit the President and the ATF have targeted them for increased regulation.

Whether you call up pistol braces are a practical add-on to an AR pistol, an attempt to skirt federal law, or a range-toy with drawbacks in real-globe settings, it's impossible to avoid the fact that they're at center stage in the electric current gun rights contend.

What is an AR-15 Pistol?

Just put, an AR-15 Pistol, commonly known equally an AR Pistol, is an AR-xv platform firearm that has been modified to meet the legal definition of a pistol. Although there's mostly a buffer tube about 7.25-inches long projecting backside the activeness, as this is where the recoil spring is housed, information technology has no stock.

Prior to the introduction of pistol stabilizing braces, some people had put foam sleeves (or other coverings) on the stop of their buffer tubes to facilitate shooting them more comfortably. However, information technology was debated every bit to whether or not this was legal to do.

Tin can I Brand an AR Pistol into a Rifle, or Vice Versa?

This is one of the few unproblematic questions surrounding this topic. A pistol tin can become a burglarize, even a short-barreled one, but only in one case. A burglarize can't become a pistol, though information technology can become an SBR.

short barrel rifle SBR — A brusk barrel rifle

To clarify, the path on this is a one-fashion street: if you desire an AR pistol, you tin't use a lower receiver that has been configured for a burglarize. This is an important stardom because if y'all put a pistol upper on a rifle lower without getting ATF approval and completing the necessary regulatory steps, you'll almost likely have manufactured or configured an unregistered SBR and committed a federal felony.

What is the Real Deviation Betwixt an SBR and a Braced Pistol?

In 2012, SB Tactical debuted the Pistol Stabilizing Caryatid, with multiple manufacturers start producing a model for either AK pistols or AR pistols in 2013. The AR model attached using the existing buffer tube, much similar a regular stock, and the rear surface of information technology appeared large enough to provide a decent shouldering area, which was immediately noticed by consumers.

Eventually, in March of 2014, the ATF replied to an inquiry from law enforcement asking if it was legal to shoulder an AR pistol with a brace attached, or if information technology would reclassify that pistol as an SBR, and their answer was clear and straightforward.

The ATF addressed the brace in question, noting: (1) it was not classified as a shoulder stock; and (2) improper use did not change the classification of the weapon. As stated by the agency, firing a gun from a certain position, including while shouldering a pistol brace attached to a firearm, did non change the classification of the weapon. As such, while non what the manufacturer intended or recommended, firing an AR pistol in this manner did non change the classification of the gun from a pistol to an SBR.

This interpretation issued by the ATF helped provide clear and concise guidance to a subject involving pistol braces, ane that had previously been dominated by vague suppositions.

Tin Y'all Legally Shoulder an AR-15 Pistol with a Stabilizing Brace on Information technology?

At the fourth dimension of this writing, it's all-time exercise not to shoulder this detail. Only know that the ATF has a long history of issuing conflicting interpretations on this issue.

Despite the 2014 decision, the ATF completely reversed form in January of 2015. In its "Open Letter on the Redesign of 'Stabilizing Braces,'" the ATF asserted that the mere use of a pistol brace as a shoulder stock "found[d] a "redesign of the device" and did indeed change the nomenclature of the pistol into an SBR.

As such, anyone shouldering a braced pistol was "redesign[ing] a stabilizing brace for use every bit a shoulder stock" and the firearm was then subject to NFA requirements, including the completion of a Course 1 (ATF Course 5320.01) and paying the applicable $200 tax stamp.

Essentially, pursuant to the 2015 letter, anyone who shouldered an AR-15 pistol with a stabilizing brace attached had "redesigned" the device into an NFA detail—a brusk-barreled rifle—and may be subject to charges.

The ATF then issued some other letter 26 months later in March of 2017, changing classagain.

shoulder ar-15 stabilizing brace shouldering — Foghorn for TTAG

In this new letter, the agency clarified that "redesign" did not necessarily apply to a caryatid that was not "re-configured" only was notwithstanding fastened to a gun fired from the shoulder. The ATF noted that a pistol brace was not intended to exist fired from the shoulder and "reconfiguration" would occur when affirmative steps were taken to alter the stabilizing brace to brand it more like a shoulder stock—such as by affixing information technology permanently to the buffer tube or removing the arm strap that allows it to be used around the forearm—before so firing information technology from the shoulder.

Per the ATF, this reconfiguration would and so fall under the NFA's meaning of "redesign."See 26 U.S.C. § 5845.

Why Is This So Complicated?

Writing laws and drafting regulations that are intended to govern a subject as sometime and broad as "firearms" is difficult, while interpreting existing statutes and rules can exist equally every bit challenging. Guns have been around in 1 class or another for hundreds of years, and there are countless ways firearms can exist operated, modified, or accessorized. Attempting to manage every possibility is very complicated, specially equally designers find new ways to innovate.

Black Collar Arms APS — Courtesy Black Collar Artillery

The concept of the pistol brace is a fantastic example of this in action. Short barrel rifles take been regulated by the NFA since 1934, and over past decades, people have found new and innovative ways to alter pistols without automatically creating an NFA item. Fifty-fifty the ATF seems to have conflicting conclusions surrounding the legality of some of these innovations, including that of pistol braces.

What is Beingness Washed About It Now?

In April of 2021, the Biden administration directed the Department of Justice (DOJ)—of which the ATF is a function—to determine when a pistol brace "effectively turns a pistol into a short-barreled rifle" and should exist regulated under the NFA. In June of 2021, the ATF responded with a proposed rule— Factoring Criteria for Firearms With Fastened "Stabilizing Braces"—which included the creation of a worksheet and factoring criteria to determine whether a device would exist classified as a "firearm" or a "brusk-barreled rifle" under the NFA and Gun Control Human action (GCA).

Through a proposed signal system, the ATF would decide whether a pistol with a certain brace on information technology constituted an SBR and would thereby be subject to the applicable requirements of the NFA.

ATF pistol stabilizing brace factoring worksheet — Courtesy ATF (click here for full worksheet)

When examined by law-abiding gun owners, Second Subpoena advocates, and some members of Congress, most found the proposal to be an example of executive overreach and its factoring criteria and then vague as to allow virtually all pistols with stabilizing braces to exist classified as SBRs, non to mention some of the concerns with the ATF's rulemaking process.

The backfire was firsthand, intense, and entirely expected.

What Should Nosotros Expect in the Future?

The ATF published its terminal rule in the Federal Annals in January and will have effect some fourth dimension in August of 2022. To be articulate, the new rule does non outlaw AR-15 pistols or pistol braces. It will continue to exist legal to make, buy, sell, or ain them. The ATF'southward new regulations volition only employ to the configuration of the complete firearm on which a caryatid is used. ATF can't rule on the caryatid itself, but they can rule on a complete firearm that includes a brace. Those complete firearms will be evaluated based on the ATF'due south points-based factoring system.

The long, strange journey of the AR-xv pistol caryatid is an excellent example of the seemingly arbitrary nature of "gun reform" in America. However, information technology is also a lesson on how necessary and constructive the vigilance and genuine business organisation for the rights and liberties of the boilerplate firearm possessor can exist, reaffirming that Second Amendment advocacy and the voices of lawful gun owners are an important function of preserving everyone's rights.

Emily Taylor is a partner with Walker & Taylor, PLLC.