ATF Director Says Gun Owners Shouldn’t be Demonized for Owning Short-Barreled Firearms

In a recent interview with NPR, Brady head Kris Brown declared her opposition to the proposed repeal of the Biden-era’s ATF rule on pistol-stabilizing braces that created a presumption that any brace-equipped pistol was a short-barreled rifle that needed to be registered and taxed under the National Firearms Act. 

“There’s no public safety argument that can possibly be made for why you would want to eliminate the regulation of stabilizing braces,” Brown stated. “Because literally, if you buy that product and put it on a pistol, it becomes a short-barreled rifle. And the purpose of that is mass killing.” 

In an interview with Bearing Arms on Wednesday, ATF Director Robert Cekada slammed that point of view. 

“There’s a theory that if you own one of these firearms, you only own it to go kill people,” Cekada said. “I can assure you, I’ve owned these firearms now for about eight years and I haven’t killed anyone.” 

Cekada went on to say that “these types of statements are not helpful to either side of this discussion.”

When you identify a firearm with a person, that person being evil because they possess or own a firearm legally, it’s a remark where you lose the forward progress in the conversation. And that’s where they lost me. This [the Biden-era rule] is not something that was helping the public. As law enforcement officers, we look at trace data. The trace data tells us a lot of things; where a firearm comes from, the time-to-crime, the length of time from when it first entered the market to when it was used in a shooting, and it also tells us the type of firearms that are used in violent crimes. 

Sure, could a rifle with a stabilizing brace be used in a violent crime? Yes. Has a rifle been used with a stabilizing brace? Yes. Has that number reached the same number as, for example, pistols or revolvers? No. Handguns are still chosen by criminals and prohibited persons to be used in violent crimes. Rifles and short-barreled rifles fall way over to the far end of the column as the lowest number of firearms being used in violent crime. 

It’s refreshing to see an ATF director who isn’t trying to demonize gun owners, and is in fact calling out those who claim the only purpose of owning NFA items is to commit murder. 

As Cekada mentioned, he actually owns several short-barreled firearms, and says he actually got caught up in the Biden-era rule on pistol braces. Cekada says he purchased two rifles and a shotgun that were equipped with stabilizing braces and actually ended up registering them under the NFA because he didn’t want to “run afoul with the law” even though there was some confusion about whether or not they were actually considered shortt-barreled firearms under the NFA definition. 

“But I was pretty upset when I was told that I did something wrong,” he told Bearing Arms. “I didn’t do anything! I bought a firearm from a federal firearms licensee, did all the paperwork, paid the tax in the state where I lived, and then I was told ‘well, you were supposed to pay a tax to the NFA because of having these short-barreled rifles.'”

“I said, ‘Hey, that’s B.S. We didn’t put out clear guidance to folks over the years. I bought these through a legal market, did not attach any accessories on my own, and now you’re telling me I did something wrong and now I actually have to register and pay a tax,” Cekada shared.

“I was very upset and I voiced that to the prior leadership team here and the prior counsel’s office. But, you know, I was in a position where I couldn’t sway their decisions, but they knew clearly where I stood.” 

Cekada says he is not going to direct ATF agents to enforce a rule that’s so vaguely written that agents themselves are unclear of its scope. While that sounds like common sense, it’s contrary to what the ATF was doing under the Biden administration… and what anti-gunners like Brown want to see from the agency today. 

Editor’s Note: President Trump and Republicans across the country are doing everything they can to protect our Second Amendment rights and right to self-defense.

Help us continue to report on their efforts and legislative successes. Join Bearing Arms VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.