Sunday, October 18, 2020

What's the Deal With The Honey Badger AR Pistol?

Back in August, the story got out that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (BATFE - motto, "Making It Up on the Fly Since, Well, Forever") had notified a company called Q, LLC that their AR Pistol, called Honey Badger, was a short-barreled rifle and therefore regulated under the National Firearms Act (NFA) subject to the $500 tax and absurd waiting period.  BATFE sent a "cease and desist" letter to Q that included warnings for their customers. 


To get into what all those terms mean would take a thousand words, but to many readers who drop by here, they're familiar words and concepts.  I'd take a bet that a lot of people are saying something like, "it looks like any other AR pistol.  WTF??"  To make things even less clear, the BATFE has put their "cease and desist" order on hold, allegedly to get some sort of backing from someone higher.

Here's the short version. The NFA in 1934 created an arbitrary definition of a rifle and a pistol that depended on size and how you hold it. Suddenly, rifles with 12 or 14" barrels that used to cost $50 or less, required a $500 tax stamp. The difference was that a rifle was braced against the shoulder while a pistol was handheld.  A rifle (or shotgun) was required to have a barrel longer than 16".  A pistol wasn't.  When AR caliber pistols started to become available, they weren't allowed to have a foregrip, as you'll see on tons of ARs, but people found the recoil of the pistol uncomfortable to manage.  After the brace was invented, the BATFE essentially said if the brace is held against the shoulder, the pistol is magically transformed into a short barreled rifle.  Then they said, no, never mind. 

I'd highly recommend that if you have questions about how we got where we are, or you just want to hear some solid commentary from Alex Bosco at SB Tactical who actually invented the Pistol Stabilizing Brace ® and Michael Bane, listen to Michael Bane's podcast .  It's about an hour but worth it. 

Bane starts with the observation that this could be an attack on Donald Trump by insiders at the BATFE.  Holdovers put in place by Eric Holder.  It's no secret that there are anti-gun forces in the ranks of the BATFE.  This could be their attempt to drive a wedge between gun owners and Trump to help get Biden elected, so they can start to enact the destruction of the second amendment.  From what both of them say, the wedge appears to be working. 

According to Alex Bosco, the BATFE is telling him they're defining weapons according to the old line about pornography: "We'll know it when we see it." They're making the law as obscure and impossible to understand as can be.  They're implying that if you make any modification to a gun that crosses some imaginary line that they won't tell you about, they'll subject you to the $10,000 fine and years in prison.  Maybe you put a red dot on you AR pistol, or a scope; never mind that you can put those on any handgun, you've made your AR pistol into a rifle so you're going to federal prison.

Tyrants love that sort of power.  Having some familiarity with the 80% lower concept and happenings, it seems to me the BATFE has always tried to make every ruling as muddy and unclear as possible.  The better to entrap you with.



8 comments:

  1. BATFEces....like almost ALL Fed agencies is rife with communists. The left has been infiltrating pretty much every part of American culture that gives them a measure of control since before you or I were a gleam in papa's eye. Now those
    decades of subversion are being put into practice.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well, anyone with a lick of sense knew that the whole 'wrist stabilizer' thingy was just a stupid trick to get around BATFE idiots. And, as with 'bump stocks' the BATFE giveth and the BATFE taketh away and then says 'nevermind' and backtracks but do they?

    What it really comes down to is the 1934 NFA is unconstitutional and illegal and was a huge powergrab by FDR's administration, much like the 1968 GCA was a huge powergrab by LBJ's administration and the 1994 AWB was a huge powergrab by WJC's administration.

    Dangit, what part of 'SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED' don't these meddlesome petty lefitst bureaucrats and politicians don't understand?

    So, in conclusion, BATFE is wrong, as usual. But BATFE, like the EPA and the IRS and the SEC (secexcom, not the football people,) makes and enforces their own rules as they see fit. And will fight tooth and nail to continue whatever their agenda is no matter what the Supreme Court, Congress or the Executive Office (which supposedly is in control of it, yeah, right) say.

    Dangit.

    Shall
    Not
    Be
    Infringed.

    SNBI - should be branded backwards into the foreheads of every one of those slopeheaded idiots in the BATFE.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I wish I could afford full-auto or burst, but since those Demonrats in '86 banned domestic production for mere mortals...

    ReplyDelete
  4. $200.

    The tax stamp is $200 for a form 1 or form 4. $5 for a form 4 AOW.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No tax on a form 2 past the already expensive SOT and FFL.

      Delete
    2. D'oh! Thanks. I had it right in front of me and didn't double check.

      Delete
  5. This is almost exactly the same as how they treat medical doctors. You can prescribe pain medications to your patients, just don't prescribe too many, or you can lose your license and be prosecuted. " How many is too many?" doctors ask. The DEA says, in effect, " we will let you know, if you over prescribe. For those of us with chronic pain conditions, it makes it almost unbearable at times. I am on disability due to chronic daily migraines. You can imagine how bad they are, if I was placed on disability for it. I used to be able to go to a medi center, or the ER, and get a shot of a narcotic, and something to stop vomiting, to break the cycle of migraine. Now, even if I have a kidney stone, which I am prone to, I struggle to get them to give me anything for pain, which is often crippling.

    pigpen51

    ReplyDelete
  6. Obeying laws is the political conservative sacrament -- law-abiding is nearly the definition of political conservative. Look at how strong of a legal case Bundy had to make before anybody would help him. He couldn't just say, 'who are those idiots up in capitol city to tell me what do to?'

    It's no secret that there are anti-gun forces in the ranks of the BATFE.

    The entire concept of the BATFE is anti-gun.

    Funny how we never hear about those 'freedom for a small caliber gun made in this state' laws that were passed being used. Doing that would make the BATFE unhappy, and obeying authority makes political conservatives feel safe.

    pigpen51, how much better would Breaking Bad have been if instead of a horrible drug of abuse, the chemist made time-release opiates and sold them for five cents each?

    ReplyDelete