On January 13, 2023, the Attorney General signed ATF final rule 2021R-08F, “Factoring Criteria for Firearms with Attached ‘Stabilizing Braces,’” amending ATF’s regulations to clarify when a rifle is designed, made, and intended to be fired from the shoulder.

What this means is that any firearm with less than a 16" Barrel with a Pistol Brace attached to it will become a "Short-Barrel Rifle" or SBR for short.

On January 31st, 2023 this rule officially entered the federal registry, making all pistol brace firearms into SBRs effective immediately.

Normally, in order to register a firearm as an SBR you have to fill out an ATF Form 1 Application for Tax Paid Transfer and Registration of a Firearm, registering your firearm with the ATF as a National Firearms Act (NFA) Firearm, and submit a $200 payment to the ATF to acquire a tax stamp for your firearm.

If you haven't had the pleasure of dealing with the ATF or filing forms with them, then you can consider yourself lucky, anyone who has ever purchased a Suppressor or SBR knows that the ATF can take 6 months to a year to approve your Form 4 and issue your Tax Stamp and you are NOT allowed to possess your NFA item until you have your tax stamp.

Yes you do, and so do about 20 Million other Americans. The ATF estimates there to be over 40 Million Pistol Brace Firearms that will become SBRs once the new law goes into effect, and each and every one will need to be registered or they will become a felony to possess.

It is insane, we agree, fortunately the ATF is establishing a department specifically for these applications to ensure quick processing and they're even waiving the $200 fee for the first 120 days.

Most of the Form 1 can be filled out on your own, however, each Form 1 requires that you be fingerprinted and if you ever want to sell the firearm, give it to your children, or even if you pass away and will it to someone, they will have to file again and wait for the ATF to approve them and give them the Tax Stamp, without any dedicated team for filing or waiving any fees.

It is fairly complicated, but there is no need to worry, IPS can help you out!

We help you with everything, from filling out forms to fingerprinting, we're there with you every step of the way.

Fortunately, we can help with that too!

With our Partner over at Firearm Estate Services, we can get all of your NFA items set up in a trust.

That means that if you want to give it to your family or friends or if you just want to be sure it's secure when you pass away, you won't need to worry.

With a trust, all of your NFA items become owned by the trust, not you personally, so anyone on the trust can own or possess any of the NFA items included in the trust without having to fill out a Form 4 and wait every single time.