LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — After the devices were used in mass shootings, the government is putting new restrictions on guns with accessories known as stabilizing braces.
Crestwood gun range CEO Barry Laws is already trying to inform his customers about the new rules coming next week.
He even has a sign at the entrance to his store.
Crestwood Openrange CEO Barry Laws is letting his customers know about the upcoming restriction on guns with stabilizing braces.
“So, you’re going to have millions of people becoming essentially criminals for not complying,” Laws said.
On Friday, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) finalized a new regulation which will reclassify guns with stabilizing accessories as short barreled riles, not pistols.
That means these guns will require a federal license to own. There are a few options for owners.
They can register the guns, remove the stabilizing brace or surrender the gun to the ATF. The rule goes into effect once its published in the Federal Register, which is expected to happen sometime next week.
The Department of Justice is giving owners the next 120 days to comply.
“I was just on the ATF site today to see what I would have to go through to turn my pistol into a rifle and it was very convoluted and very difficult and that’s for somebody who is in the industry,” Laws said.
But Laws is skeptical about how many people will actually do it.
“I can see a lot of people getting, even if they want to, into it and just going I’m not going to do this,” he said.
The rule change is part of the gun strategy President Joe Biden announced in 2021 in response to the mass shooting at a Colorado grocery store where 10 were killed.
The gunman used a stabilizing brace, which was also used by the gunman in the Dayton, Ohio mass shooting in 2019.
Gun right advocates are criticizing the move, the NRA tweeted, “Joe Biden is an enemy of our Second Amendment.”
While others are praising it, the group Everytown for Gun Safety thanked Biden saying, “For too long, the gun industry has exploited the arm brace loophole.”
For more information from the ATF, click here.
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