Here’s something you will find funny but is annoying to me: I can’t find the pistol arm braces I hid away when the ban on having a braced pistol went into effect. After searching for more than an hour, I found one, but the other two are not where I expected them to be. Now I am left scratching my head.
I guess the good news is that if the ATF had ever shown up with a search warrant searched my house, they might not have found them either.
I looked in all the obvious places where I thought they were or where I was likely to have put them. Then I went back a few hours later and looked even closer in the original place I thought they were . Still no luck. Now I have no idea where they are.
What’s funny is I remember how I packed them up. I put one of them back into its original red SB Tactical box and the other back in its brown box; unfortunately, I don’t remember where I stashed those boxes. I put the brace from my Banshee into the gun’s original box and hid the Banshee’s box. Eventually, I found the Banshee box, and the brace was in there as expected, but the other two braces are still MIA.
Stupid Rules and Regulations
While searching through my boxes of AR15 parts and accessories, I found four rifle or carbine stocks. If I was intent on breaking the law, I could put a stock on my AR pistols and have an illegal SBR. But having the stock in my house with the AR pistols is not illegal. Somehow, the ATF wanted us to believe that having the brace in the house, even if it wasn’t on the pistol, was illegal.
Thankfully, the courts have thrown out the regulation that blocked pistol braces, as we have discussed here and here, and we can now own pistol braces and even put them on our pistols, AR or otherwise. I’ve seen AR pistols with braces on sale again.
My friend Karl stopped by and we did some shooting with my suppressor. He asked why I hadn’t put the brace back on my AR pistol. I simply hadn’t bothered to do so. After he left, I decided to dig the braces out and put them on the guns. Hours later, there has been lots of digging, but two braces are still missing.
Strange Hiding Places
Now I have to think of whether I put these in a strange hiding place or just an unusual hiding place. What’s the difference? A strange hiding place would be to cut open a piece of sheet rock, put them in the wall, spackle it up and repaint—and I know I didn’t go to any extremes like that. Neither did I bury them in the garden or stash them in a cache on the side of the mountain, because I expected the law to be over turned. An unusual hiding place would be one that has nothing to do with guns. Like putting the stocks in my box of old tax returns. (Nope, already looked there.) Or stashing them in a box that is filled with something else unrelated to guns, such as a food storage box. (Too many to go through.)
I’ve looked in a number of unusual places, like my pile of padded weapons cases, gear bags and backpacks. Hiding something in a supposedly empty bag is a good idea, but they were not in there. Instead, I found a couple cans of beef stew I had hidden from my wife.
I think I will just sleep on it. Maybe my subconscious will reveal the location. If not, then I will have to search the garage.
Law of the Land
What would I do with my AR pistols if tomorrow we experienced some catastrophic event and suddenly lived in a world without the ATF or any other law enforcement agency? I’d put stocks on them, even if I had to swap out the pistol buffer tube, spring and buffer for the carbine equivalent. The prohibition on short-barreled rifles is stupid. There is nothing inherently wrong with having a gun with a 10.5-inch barrel.
With today’s most common rifle calibers, a barrel of 16, 18, or even 24 inches gets more speed out of the cartridge than a pistol-length barrel. That means more stopping power. Longer barrels can also mean greater accuracy. Rifles with long barrels can be heavy, but our ancestors fought battles with even longer guns than an AR with a 20-inch barrel. The M1 Garand, for example, had a 24-inch barrel, as did the 1903 Springfield, and they helped us win the World Wars. And who came up with the 16-inch rule in any case? The tax man.
So why do I want an AR pistol? Because it is covered by my concealed carry permit and I can travel to other states which if CCW reciprocity without the need to lock it up and transport it unloaded, like a rifle requires.
The primary reason to put a device on your pistol that will allow you to mount it on your shoulder is to have better accuracy and recoil control. Both of these make the guns safer because better aiming means fewer stray bullets flying around. But don’t expect our regulators to have common sense.
Yet another reason this rule was stupid. I’m glad it has been stayed by the court.
